Competitor Coach of the Month: Arthur Albiero, Louisville

Competitor Coach of the Month is a recurring SwimSwam feature shedding light on a U.S.-based coach who has risen above the competition. As with any item of recognition, Competitor Coach of the Month is a subjective exercise meant to highlight one coach whose work holds noteworthy context – perhaps a coach who was clearly in the limelight, or one whose work fell through the cracks a bit more among other stories. If your favorite coach wasn’t selected, feel free to respectfully recognize them in our comment section.

For U.S.-based athletes, the biggest national-level competition of the month of May was the Pro Swim Series stop in Mesa, Arizona.

Tallying up PSS points, only one training group put a swimmer inside the top 5 point-scorers for both men and women: Louisville’s training group, headed by coach Arthur Albiero.

The combination of the University of Louisville and Cardinal Aquatics (the school’s companion club team) produced the #3 point-scorer for both genders. Kelsi Worrell was #3 for women and Marcelo Acosta for men, each scoring 10 points.

For Worrell, those points came on wins in the 100 fly and 200 fly, each in times that still rank inside the top 20 in the world. The 200 was maybe most impressive. In the midst of a pretty training-heavy stage of the season, Worrell was 2:09.04, just a half-second off her best time. She was almost a second off her best in the 100 fly (58.42), which suggests her 200 could see a big breakthrough this summer with a full taper.

Worrell also competed in the A finals of the 100 free (5th in 54.84), 200 free (7th in 2:03.47) and 50 free (7th in 26.59).

Acosta, meanwhile, swept the distance races for men. His 15:24.19 took the 1500 free and he won the 400 free in 3:53.38. Acosta, an Olympian for El Salvador who just finished up his sophomore season in the NCAA, was also 7th in the 200 free final.

More of Albiero’s swimmers made waves outside of that duo. Joao de Lucca scored the sixth-most points of any man, taking second in the 200 free (1:49.51) and 100 free (49.67). He was also 22.96 to challenge Olympic champ Anthony Ervin in the B final of the 50 free.

NCAA co-champ Mallory Comerford didn’t even swim the final of the 200 free, the event in which she tied Olympic champ Katie Ledecky at NCAAs. Comerford still took second in the 100 free (54.22), sixth in the 100 fly (1:00.18), and her prelims time in the 200 free would have earned her 6th in the final. Her prelims 50 free would have taken 6th had she swum that final.

Albiero also put Andee Cottrell, Carlos Claverie, Etay Gurevich, Trevor Carroll and Zach Harting into A finals in Mesa.

Keep an eye on the Louisville crew this weekend, as the school will host the TYR Derby Pro meet. That’ll give Worrell, de Lucca, Carroll and Grigory Tarasevich more chances to add to a banner month for the Cardinals.

About Competitor Swim

Since 1960, Competitor Swim® has been the leader in the production of racing lanes and other swim products for competitions around the world. Competitor lane lines have been used in countless NCAA Championships, as well as 10 of the past 13 Olympic Games. Molded and assembled using U.S. – made components, Competitor lane lines are durable, easy to set up and are sold through distributors and dealers worldwide.

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