There was no scarcity of teaching turnover within the NCAA offseason, and now that the overwhelming majority of groups have wrapped up their midseason invitationals, we’ve gotten a glimpse into how groups are faring beneath their new coaches.
With some 33 NCAA Division I swim & dive applications altering head coaches between March and September, we’ll give attention to swim groups within the Energy conferences for the needs of this text.
Essentially the most excessive profile teaching transfer made within the offseason was the College of Texas appointing Bob Bowman as its new Director of Swimming and head coach of the boys’s workforce. With Bowman transferring on from Arizona State, his affiliate coach Herbie Behm was promoted to go coach, and it’s truthful to say each males have discovered success to date this season.
TEXAS MEN ON FIRE UNDER BOWMAN
Relative to their lofty requirements, the Texas males had been in a little bit of a hunch previous to Bowman’s hiring, and it’s clear the appointment of the embellished coach, together with the entire swimmers who’ve joined the workforce since, has rejuvenated this system.
On the Texas Corridor of Fame Invite, the Longhorns lit it up with sophomore Rex Maurer main the cost, setting a brand new American File within the 500 free (4:04.49), breaking the hour-old document established by Texas post-grad Carson Foster on the similar meet (4:05.81).
Maurer additionally broke Luke Hobson‘s Texas File of 4:06.93 and ranks #1 within the nation this season by 5 seconds, with teammate David Johnston (4:09.41) sitting 2nd.
Maurer, who spent his freshman yr at Stanford earlier than transferring to Texas, additionally posted nation-leading and lifelong finest occasions en path to wins within the 1650 free (14:30.47) and 400 IM (3:34.19), with each performances rating him #2 at school historical past. The sophomore additionally set PBs within the 200 free (1:31.59), 100 again (45.36) and 200 again (1:38.27). The five hundred free, 1650 free, 200 again and 400 IM all earned him NCAA ‘A’ cuts as nicely.
Different standouts for Texas included homegrown sophomores Will Modglin and Nate Germonprez, who each set program information in stroke 100 occasions.
Modglin turned the eleventh swimmer in historical past to interrupt 44 seconds within the 100 again, clocking 43.91 within the remaining to decrease his faculty document of 43.98 set within the prelims (coming in, he held the mark at 44.20 from final season). He leads the NCAA by greater than a second within the 100 again, and he additionally set a nation-leading (and PB) time within the 200 again of 1:37.84. On high of that, he set bests within the 100 free (42.08) and 200 IM (1:40.97), the latter rating him third within the nation.
Germonprez broke the Texas File within the 100 breast, firing off a time of fifty.39 to rank #7 all-time, and he additionally set a finest time of 1:52.25 within the 200 breast. Within the 100 breast, Germonprez ranks #2 within the nation, whereas teammate Will Scholtz sits third.
Different success tales by way of the primary portion of the season for Texas are Logan Walker, who has been a breakout performer within the 200 fly, freshman Cooper Lucas, who set bests within the 200 fly and 400 IM on the invite, and sophomore Camden Taylor, who notched PBs within the 50, 100 and 200 free.
The Longhorns additionally hit NCAA ‘A’ cuts in 4 of the relays, solely lacking out within the 200 free relay.
Nobody was questioning Bowman’s means to carry Texas again into championship competition, however few would’ve anticipated it might occur this rapidly. And all of this got here with a comparatively quiet efficiency from Olympic champion Hubert Kos, who came to visit from ASU with Bowman. Kos nonetheless leads the NCAA within the 200 IM regardless of being simply “OK” by his requirements finally week’s invite.
ASU DOESN’T MISS A STEP UNDER BEHM
After profitable the boys’s NCAA title final season, Arizona State wasn’t anticipated to take a step again essentially because of Bowman transferring on and Behm being the brand new coach, it was due to the swimmers misplaced within the shuffle.
The Solar Satan males misplaced their high 4 scorers from the 2024 NCAAs, and but, they don’t appear to have missed a beat to date this season.
Ilya Kharun has continued to excel in his sophomore yr, at the moment main the NCAA within the 200 fly (1:38.74), re-lowering his ASU File within the 100 fly (43.85) to rank 2nd within the nation, and he’s additionally set new bests within the 50 free (18.51) and 100 free (41.56), rating 2nd and 4th within the nation, respectively.
Maybe the workforce’s most spectacular swim finally week’s Wolfpack Elite Invite got here within the 200 free relay, the place Kharun teamed up with Tommy Palmer, Patrick Sammon and Jonny Kulow to clock 1:13.93, breaking the College File and rating #1 within the nation.
Kulow has hit one other gear early this season, breaking 41 seconds for the primary time within the 100 free (40.97), whereas Palmer and Sammon have managed to step in and be extra of the “go-to” guys on relays after the entire departures.
Maybe extra impressively, the ASU ladies’s workforce has been off to a sizzling begin beneath Behm.
Virginia Tech switch Caroline Bentz set 4 new faculty information within the 50 free (21.80), 100 free (48.16), 100 again (52.39) and 200 again (1:52.10), with each freestyle occasions additionally marking new PBs.
Bentz performed a vital function in ASU setting faculty information within the 200 free and 200 medley relays, each hitting ‘A’ cuts, and we additionally noticed a program document fall by the hands of freshman Julia Ullmann within the 100 fly (51.65).
Different swimmers hitting finest occasions included Alexa Reyna, Charli Brown, Sonia Vaishnani and Emma Gehlert.
ARIZONA, BOSTON COLLEGE FIND SUCCESS AFTER HITTING RESET BUTTON
The College of Arizona and Boston Faculty wanted recent begins after final season, and each groups have seemed good so far beneath their new coaches in 2024-25.
The Wildcats employed Ben Loorz to take over as head coach in Could after transferring on from Augie Busch, who discovered little success and had a revolving door of assistants working beneath him throughout his tenure in Tucson.
On the Wolfpack Elite Invite, Arizona confirmed progress with junior Haakon Naughton and sophomore Will Meyers main the best way.
Naughton set private finest occasions within the males’s 100 fly (45.27) and 200 fly (1:40.55), incomes podium finishes on the meet and transferring to #4 and #2 all-time at school historical past, respectively. Meyers set PBs within the males’s 100 again (46.50) and 200 again (1:41.15), along with his 200 again exhibiting rating #5 in program historical past.
The lads’s workforce additionally hit ‘A’ cuts within the 400 and 800 free relays, recording occasions in each races sooner than they went over everything of final yr.
Tanver Knowledge (200 breast), Joel Nace (100 fly, 200 fly) and Ralph Daldein (200 free, 100 again) have been a couple of different males’s workforce members who hit new bests final week.
For the ladies, Arizona’s workforce is a nonetheless bit skinny and there weren’t as many finest occasions from their high swimmers to report, although junior Julia Wozniak shone with private bests within the 50 (22.40), 100 (49.35) and 200 free (1:49.09), and she or he additionally dropped a 21.93 cut up on the 200 free relay, which was the ladies’s finest relay exhibiting, inserting third in Greensboro.
For Boston Faculty, the workforce had an entire overhaul following the program’s season-long suspension final yr for hazing. Adorned Olympian Dara Torres took over as head coach, and issues have been optimistic for the Eagles so far.
A complete of 5 BC information have been damaged on the Terrier Invite, together with two apiece from senior Samantha Smith on the ladies’s facet and senior Jack Doyle for the boys, and a complete of 38 private bests have been recorded.
Smith set new BC information within the ladies’s 100 again (54.17) and 200 fly (2:00.42), and added finest occasions within the 200 again (1:57.51) and 100 fly (54.80), profitable the three former races on the meet.
Doyle set new program information within the males’s 200 fly (1:45.15) and 200 IM (1:45.32), profitable each races, and he additionally gained the 100 breast and 400 IM on the meet whereas setting extra finest occasions within the 50 and 200 free on relay lead-offs.
Eagles junior Ben Huffman added a faculty document of his personal within the 500 free, dropping three seconds to clock 4:23.99, one in every of two wins as he additionally topped the 1650 free.
With Doyle main the best way with 96 particular person factors, the BC males gained the invite, whereas the ladies have been fourth. The final time the workforce competed right here, they each got here out on high, so whereas the boys’s workforce has discovered loads of success and there have been particular person standouts, the ladies’s workforce is a step behind the place they have been beforehand after shedding some key members.
Senior Liza Murtagh was one other notable performer for the ladies, setting finest occasions en path to wins within the 200 breast (2:17.49), 200 IM (2:03.77) and inserting third within the 100 breast with one other PB (1:03.85 in prelims).
OTHER POWER CONFERENCE FIRST-YEAR HEAD COACHES
- John Ames, Georgia Tech (Interim) – Georgia Tech’s longtime diving coach, Ames is serving because the swim & dive program’s head coach on an interim foundation following Courtney Shealy Hart‘s resignation in August. The Yellow Jackets carried out extraordinarily nicely at their house invite, with the ladies’s workforce setting three faculty relay information and the boys including two (tying one). Individually, Nina Stanisavljevic, Phoebe Wright, Leandro Odorici and Lukas Vetkoetter impressed with quite a few finest occasions, with Stanisavljevic (W 50 free), Wright (W 200 bk) and Odorici (M 50 free) additionally posting #2 occasions at school historical past.
- Matt Leach, Iowa State – Relative to a few of these different colleges that had record-breaking meets, the Iowa State ladies didn’t have any significantly notable outcomes beneath Leach on the Hawkeye Invitational. Mallory Miller, Grace Swoboda and Abbi Crum have been high performers by way of finest occasions, nevertheless it was the divers that led the best way for the Hawkeyes. With a couple of groups becoming a member of the invitational area, together with San Diego State, Arkansas and Illinois, Iowa State positioned eighth (out of 9 groups) after taking fourth in 2023.
- Tamber McAllister, BYU – BYU had a number of standout swims on the Texas Corridor of Fame Invite beneath McAllister, who took over as head coach in Could. Mackenzie Miller set a brand new faculty document within the ladies’s 200 breast, the ladies’s 400 medley relay got here inside six-tenths of the college document, and Tanner Nelson, Luigi Riva, Jacob Ballard, Lucy Warnick and Jasmine Anderson all produced occasions that rank between #2 and #4 all-time in BYU historical past.
- Blaire Bachman, Texas A&M – Racing towards lesser competitors, Texas A&M cruised to victories at their house Artwork Adamson Invitational. Kaitlyn Owens was spectacular within the sprints for the ladies, setting new finest occasions and profitable the 50 free (22.18) and 100 again (51.79), whereas Hannah O’Leary notched lifetime bests in each IMs and Olivia Theall moved to #6 at school historical past within the 200 fly (1:54.09). For the boys, Baylor Nelson was fast in sweeping the IMs and set a finest time within the 200 breast, whereas Munzy Kabbara and Robert Bonilla Flores additionally hit lifetime bests. Connor Foote was simply shy of finest occasions however led the boys’s workforce with three particular person wins within the 50 free, 100 free and 100 fly.
- Hollie Bonewit-Cron, Penn State – Penn State was one other workforce discovering loads of success beneath their new head coach final week, competing on the Ohio State Invitational. The Nittany Lions noticed a brand new faculty document fall by the hands of Alex Karhalis within the males’s 200 IM, along with his time of 1:44.60 placing him three seconds beneath his finest time getting into the season. Quite a lot of different key swimmers set finest occasions together with Margaret Markvardt, Catherine Meisner and Mac Sullivan for the ladies, and Cooper Morley, Tylor Kim, Matthew Bittner and Jack Harvey for the boys.
- Brent MacDonald, WVU – Competing at their house WVU Invitational, the Mountaineer males’s workforce repeated because the runners-up behind Navy, whereas the ladies fell to fourth place after profitable in 2023 (a giant consider that’s shedding their high scorer, Mia Cheatwood, who transferred to Louisville). The 2 most notable performers by way of finest occasions, nonetheless, got here for the ladies, with Delaney Cox setting 4 lifetime bests, together with climbing to #6 at school historical past within the 200 again, whereas Maddie Smutny moved to #5 in WVU historical past within the 200 fly and in addition set bests within the 500 free and 100 fly. She was notably eight seconds slower within the 200 fly at this meet final yr. On the boys’s facet, there weren’t as many private bests to report, with Danny Berlitz main the best way with an IM sweep and a runner-up end within the 200 breast. He was sooner within the 200 breast, however a bit slower in each medley races, in comparison with the 2023 invite. The lads have been sooner in three of the 5 relays, nonetheless, which is a vivid spot for McDonald’s squad.
