2014-2015 William & Mary men’s swimming season outlook

The following is a press release courtesy of William & Mary swimming and diving:

The William and Mary men’s swimming team had a season for the ages last year, earning its best record in 15 years and a second-straight runner-up finish at the Colonial Athletic Association Championships in the closest meet in conference history. Now, entering the 2014-15 campaign, the Tribe is poised to earn its long-awaited breakthrough and challenge to bring the conference trophy home to Williamsburg for the first time ever. Director of Swimming Matt Crispino ’02 and his team of 27 men include four returning CAA Champions, and six newcomers who all can all qualify for multiple championship finals come February.

Sprints
The sprinting corps is one of the deepest in school history, and includes the greatest sprinter since Hall-of-Famer Ron Good ’65 made the NCAA Championships in 1963. Junior Billy Russell won five CAA titles last winter, including both the 200 free and the 100 free individually, and set school records in the 50, 100, and 200. He swam 44.16 in the 100 and 1:36.75 in the 200, and came up a narrow second in the 50 free with his 20.14 performance in that event. Russell also anchored every relay except the 200 free relay, and all of his teams set school records while winning the 800 free, 200 medley, and 400 medley championships. He was the W&M’s leading points-getter in 2013-14, piling up 386 points with 18 victories in head-to-head races.

The Tribe will also enjoy tremendous leadership in the sprints from senior Taegan Clarke, who led-off the 800 free relay to its conference-record win in 6:31.77. He also led the 400 free relay to its first-ever sub-3 minute showing, earning a silver medal in 2:58.52, and ranks second in school history in the 100 free with his 44.85. Clarke also has the range to go up into the middle-distances, as he showed winning the consolation heat of the 500 free in 2013. He won three races last year, and totaled 139.25 points.

With Russell and Clarke providing veteran leadership, the younger athletes will have a great chance to flourish this season. Another Clarke brother, sophomore Risten Clarke, broke the Tribe’s freshman records in both the 50 free (21.02) and 100 free (45.37) last year. The younger Clarke anchored W&M’s 200 free relay at the CAA Championships to the second-fastest time in school history, and also swam on the record-setting 400 free team. He enters the year ranked seventh in school history in the 100, and also is eighth all-time in the 200 free at 1:39.72. Classmate Alex Montes de Oca spends more time in the other event groups, but is in line to see more sprinting assignments after he swam a quick 45.87 in the 100 at the Virginia Senior Championships last spring.

Also in the shorter distances is sophomore Greg Rogers. He swam 21.13 in the 50 and 46.20 in the 100 last year and will be looking to make the CAA squad for the first time this year if he can better his high school bests of 20.88 and 45.28. Three freshmen also figure to make an impact in the shorter events, including a pair of state rivals from Connecticut. Tommy Kealy swam for Wilton High, and was a four-time state champion (twice each in the 50 free and the 100 fly). He’s swum 21.05, 45.81, and 1:40.11 in the freestyle events. Across the state at Lyman Hall, Kyle Neri was racking up some hardware of his own with dual-championships in the 50 free and 100 free as a senior. He also helped his YMCA team finish second in the 400 free relay and third in the 200 free relay at the 2014 national championships. Neri’s times include a 21.17 50, 45.99 100, and 1:41.50 200 free. Finally, Chantilly native Evan Baker, while spending more time in the fly events, is als o likely to bolster the free relays with his prep-best times of 21.15 and 46.08.

Distance
The distance freestyle group faces probably the toughest task of any event for the Tribe, not due to any lack in talent, but simply because only seven men in the entire conference graduated from last year’s 48 entrants in the 500 and the 1650. Redshirt-junior Lukas Dempsey will look to be back in the mix for conference honors this season, after battling through a tough meet last year. As a freshman in 2012, he was a three-event finalist and swam 9:28.14 for 1000 and 15:47.14 in the mile, as well as a solid 4:30.92 in the 500 free.

Backing him up and challenging for top billing is a four-man strong pack of underclassmen. Newcomer Conrad Zamparello comes into the year with the best times on paper, coming out of James River HS in Midlothian. He’s a Junior National qualifier who has swum 9:18 in the 1000 and 15:48 in the 1650. Sophomore Joe Eiden is a big and strong locomotive in the water, who showed a great ability to pick up speed swimming downhill in the last half of races. He nearly broke 1:40 (1:40.60) in the 200 free despite being more of a classic distance man, and with a full off-season of college training both in and out of the pool should take his spot in the championship finals of every event this February.

Looking for increased roles this winter are sophomores Sean Higgins and Conor Cudahy. Higgins went 4:35 in the 500 free last year at CAAs as his third event, and will be aiming to drop that into the high 4:20‘s this year. Cudahy is more of a pure free swimmer, timing 4:36.26 in the 500 and 9:52/16:24 in the 1000 and mile all at the Cavalier Invite in February. He has shown the ability to get down close to 16-flat in the 1650 from high school, and will be counted on to make that a reality once again to earn a shot at the CAA squad in February.

Backstroke
W&M is the dominant backstroke school in the CAA, boasting the top two individual swimmers as well as a depth chart that includes three men who would be number one or two at any other program. Leading the way is junior Will Manion, the defending CAA Champion in both the 100 and the 200 back. Manion was an NCAA provisional qualifier in both events last year, and is the only many in school history under 48 in the 100 (47.82, a CAA record) and under 1:45 in the 200 (1:44.68). He also swam the lead-off on both title-winning medley relays last year, and also swam on the conference-record 800 free relay and W&M’s school-record 400 free relay that took second overall.

Neck-and-neck with Manion is classmate Justin Barden, despite an argument to be made that neither backstroke is his best event. Barden set the school record in the 200 back as a freshman in 2013, and was third and fourth in the 100 and the 200 last year, respectively. He’s swum 48.09 in the 100 back, and 1:45.27 in the 200 back. Barden had 259.25 points in 2013-14, fourth overall, and won nine races individually with eight more runner-up finishes.

Providing the depth are three more veterans, and perhaps a freshman as well. Junior Austin Glass has had both the good and bad luck to come in the same class as Manion and Barden – bad, having to contend with them at the top of the depth chart, but much more good being able to train with the two day in and day out. Glass is primed for a break-out campaign this winter, after closing last year with career-bests of 50.28 in the 100 back and 1:46.94 in the 200. Sophomore Alex Montes de Oca is a jack-of-all-trades for W&M, but one of his feature events is the 200 back. He finished seventh in the CAA as a freshman, and timed 1:47.57 in the prelims of the event. Classmate Alex Henderson was 12th in the 200 back at 1:48.99, and also swam 51.03 in the 100 back to rank ninth all-time at W&M in that event. Rounding out the group might be freshman Wyatt Grubb. While he’ll more likely to concentrate in other events, Grubb comes out of Atlee HS with a career-be st of 1:49.20 in the 200 back, better than Manion entered college with.

Breaststroke
The breaststroke events should again be strong for W&M, even with the loss of 10-time CAA Champion Andrew Strait ’14 to graduation. Strait swept the breast-stroke events at the conference meet each of the past two years, and was the 2014 CAA Swimmer of the Year.

While Strait graduated with numerous medals, he did not graduate with the school record in the 200 breast, a title that was taken by sophomore Josh Zimmt at the Cavalier Invite in early February. Zimmt didn’t make the CAA squad, squeezed out by depth in the line-up, but showed brilliant promise in timing 55.11 in the 100 breast and 1:58.08 in the 200. Zimmt will be counted on to continue to step up and lead the line-up throughout the year after completing his first collegiate off-season training program.

Even beyond the precocious sophomore, W&M returns five men who all rank top-10 in the breaststrokes in school history. Seniors Chris Dong and Matt Goetz rank third and fourth all-time in the 100 breast, with Dong adding a fourth-place ranking the 200 breast. Dong was third in the 100 breast last season and sixth the 200, while Goetz will be looking to return to the CAA squad after just missing last winter. Goetz was the school record holder in the 100 breast after his freshman year in 2012, placing fifth in the event at the conference meet at 56.19 seconds.

Also back is senior Carter Head, who is 10th all-time in the 200 breast at 2:04.49. Head finished 16th in both events at the CAA Championships last year, as well as 14th in the 400 IM. Junior Jeremiah O’Donnell is more of an IM specialist, but became just the third man in school history to break 2 minutes in the 200 breaststroke when he swam 1:59.96 for third place at the CAA Championships. Classmate Andrew Nyce was fifth in the same race, swimming 2:02.00 to rank fifth in school history. Conrad Zamparello could also contribute in the breaststrokes, as he swam 57.0 in the 100 breast in high school.

Butterfly
The butterfly event, like distance freestyle, could be an area of hidden strength for W&M. The top two veterans are expected to contend for CAA titles, defending in the case of Justin Barden. Barden was the gold-medalist in the 100 fly last year with a school-record and NCAA-qualifying time of 47.83, more than 0.2 seconds clear of the field. It was also close to a full second better than the previous school record set just the year before.

Fellow junior Ryan Natal is deceptively powerful, especially in his signature event of the 200 fly. He was fourth in the conference last year at 1:48.96, and if he continues to progress like he has so far, will be right in contention for the gold medal. Natal was also 12th in the 100 fly at 49.23, third-fastest ever at W&M, and also had the team’s top time in the 500 free last year at 4:31.24.

Sophomore Nick DeLeon is looking for a breakout campaign in the butterflies this season, after having a full year of training under his belt. He went 51.25 in the 100 and 1:52.39 in the 200 last year at the Cavalier Invitational. Classmates Greg Rogers and Alex Montes de Oca will also probably spend some time in the fly lane, especially helping in the 100 fly where Montes de Oca was 13th in the CAA last year at 49.77.

The freshman class will make a big impact in the butterflies as well. Evan Baker comes into the season at 48.94 in the 100 and 1:47.93 in the 200, both times that would rank as the Tribe’s freshman records. Baker was a prep All-American in the 100 fly at Chantilly HS, and won the Virginia 6A (largest schools) state title in the event last spring. Connecticut’s Tommy Kealy was a two-time state champion in the 100 fly, and his best of 49.04 is just behind freshman-record pace. Mechanicsville, Va., native Wyatt Grubb is cut from the same cloth as his classmates, and won the state title in the 100 fly at 50.32.

Individual Medley
In nearly 100 years of swimming, only five Tribe men have ever broken 4 minutes in the 400 IM and just four have surpassed 1:51 in the 200 IM. Luckily for the 2014-15 edition of the team, four and three of those, respectively, all have at least two years of eligibility left, as well as two freshmen who are already close to the school record and another on the cusp of joining the sub-4 club.

Leading the pack of IM’ers is junior Jeremiah O’Donnell, who had last year’s fastest 400 IM at 3:54.18 and finished second overall at the CAA Championships. He also finished fourth in the 200 IM, as the Tribe took five of the top six spots in that event. He’ll challenge for conference titles at both distances, and should also rack up an impressive head-to-head record during the regular season.

Andrew Nyce was sixth in the 200 IM and fifth in the 400 IM at the conference meet last year, timing 1:51.28 and 3:56.56, respectively. Will Manion also swims the 200 IM as his third highlight event, and was the bronze-medalist in 2014 with a time of 1:48.03, second-fastest ever for W&M. Senior Carter Head has the 400 IM as his third event alongside the two breaststrokes, and will be looking to dip below 4-minutes for the first time this season after getting down to 4:02.89 last winter.

The IM freshman class this year has the potential to shape up like the backstroke did two years ago, with three men all challenging each other and the veterans for supremacy. Brett Barden joins the Tribe out of Godwin HS in Henrico, and swam 3:53.76 in the 400 IM and 1:50.45 in the 200 IM during the spring club season. That 400 time is more than two seconds faster than the current freshman record, and only Andrew Strait’s 3:53.00 school record has ever been faster. Right behind him, however, is longtime competitor Conrad Zamparello from Midlothian’s James River HS. Zamparello timed 3:53.9 in the same meet that Barden had his top performance, and has also swum 1:51.3 in the 200 IM. Finally, Wyatt Grubb is poised to join his classmates and high-school friends in the sub-4 club, with a prep best of 4:00.28 in the 400 IM. He has also gone 1:53.83 in the 200 IM.