William & Mary Athletics

George Collins helped lead W&M swimming & diving during one of its most successful periods in school history, and still remains as one of the standards of excellence in the sport.  As a freshman, he led the Tribe freshman team to a 10-0-1 mark, the only blemish a 52-52 tie against state power Virginia, and individually set his first school record.  Collins eventually held the school record at some point in his career in four different events (the 100 fly, 200 fly, 1000 free, and the 200 IM), and still had his name atop the record board for over a decade.  His senior year was just as spectacular as his freshman season, as W&M went a perfect 10-0 for the first and only undefeated season in school history, winning the state championship and defeating such teams as VMI, Wake Forest, Georgetown, Virginia Tech, Clemson, and the vaunted Cavaliers.
 
Collins was also W&M's all-time winningest conference titlist until 2014, winning a total of seven Southern Conference Championships between 1968 and 1970.  As a sophomore, he won the 100 fly and 200 fly, repeating in those events his junior year and adding a gold on W&M's 400 medley relay.  As a senior in 1970, he completed his three-peat in the 100 fly and repeated in the medley relay.  Collins is still one of just four men to ever three-peat an event at a conference championships, and his five individual wins still ranks third all-time in school history.  Collins broke the Southern Conference record in the 200 fly in 1968 and 1969, and added another in the 100 fly as a senior in 1970 along with helping set the meet record in the 400 medley relay in both 1969 and 1970.
 
Collins was also a force at the State Championships for W&M, winning Outstanding Swimmer of the Meet honors in both 1969 and 1970.  His 1969 win was especially notable given that the Tribe didn't win the team title.  That trophy would come the following year in 1970, the first of two-straight state championships, and the only championship trophies W&M would win until the 2015 season.  Collins swept the fly events and the 200 IM each year, adding the 400 medley relay and 800 free relay as a senior.  While the records from his years are not comprehensive, a reconstruction yields 16 wins and 224 points as a sophomore, 26 wins and 314 points as a junior, and 19 wins and 224.5 points as a senior, for career totals of 61 wins and 762.5 points.  Collins' junior campaign of 26 wins still ranks sixth all-time at W&M, while his career total of 61 wins also ranks sixth.   Since 1990, there have only been 20 other seasons where a Tribe swimmer has scored 300 points in a year.