True Sweetser, a three-year NCAA scorer in the mile, is sitting out the current college season to prepare for the 2020 U.S. Olympic Trials.
Sweetser would have been a senior this season for the Cardinal. He’s scored at NCAAs in all three of his previous college seasons, including back-to-back top-8 finishes in the mile. He was Stanford’s second-highest returning scorer from 2019 NCAAs, having put up 12 points last March.
Sweetser was 12th in the 1650 as a freshman, and also scored with a 16th-place 500 free. Since then, his 500 has dropped off some, but his mile improved to 8th as a sophomore and 7th as a junior. Sweetser didn’t compete at Stanford’s season-opening meet over the weekend, the Pacific Invite.
Sweetser’s Top Times:
- 500y free: 4:12.97
- 1000y free: 8:58.54
- 1650y free: 14:35.03
- 200m free: 1:49.59
- 400m free: 3:47.94
- 800m free: 7:53.32
- 1500m free: 14:59.73
Last season, Sweetser ranked just 9th among Americans in the 1500-meter free (15:14.24) and 8th in the 800-meter free (7:56.96), swimming both season-bests at the Pan American Games. His 1500 won Pan Ams silver and his 800 was fourth, just two tenths out of medal range.
On the other hand, his career-bests would have ranked 2nd (400 free), 4th (800 free) and 3rd (1500 free) nationally last summer, so a return to form could give Sweetser very good chances at the U.S. Olympic team, especially with the 800 now an Olympic event for men.
Other top NCAA names taking gap years, redshirt seasons or school deferrals in the Olympic year:
Greco is the latest in a long list of Olympic-year redshirts and deferrals:
- Taylor Ruck, Stanford (Canada)
- Olivia Carter, Georgia (USA)
- Ida Hulkko, Florida State (Finland)
- Faith Knelson, Arizona (Canada)
- Mackenzie Padington, Minnesota (Canada)
- Sarah Bacon, Minnesota (USA)
- Kristen Hayden, Minnesota (USA)
- Mabel Zavaros, Florida (Canada)
- Federica Greco, Rutgers (Italy)
- Dean Farris, Harvard (USA)
- Javier Acevedo, Georgia (Canada)
- Giovanni Izzo, NC State (Italy)
- Jarod Arroyo, Arizona State (Puerto Rico)
- Ruslan Gaziev, Ohio State (Canada)
- Mario Koenigsperger, USC (New Zealand)
- Grant House, Arizona State (USA)
- Michael Brinegar, Indiana (USA)
- Andrew Capobianco, Indiana (USA)
- Brandon Loschiavo, Purdue (USA)
- Raphael Marcoux, Harvard (Canada)
- True Sweetser, Stanford (USA)
With this loss it will be interesting to see if Cal can manage to win PAC12s this year
Lol
That is a cool name, but it doesn’t inspire fear.
True.
Sweet
Where is he training? Stanford or Gainesville?
Gainesville
Smart choice.
Gainsville is where he is originally from.