Just days after entering the NCAA transfer portal, 2024 NCAA qualifier Ava Topolewski of George Washington has withdrawn from the portal.
Topolewski has been with GWU for the last two years and has two years of eligibility remaining. Head coach Brian Thomas left the program earlier this week which allowed for exceptions to the transfer portal deadline that was at the end of April. Topolewski entered the portal alongside teammate and fellow NCAA qualifier Ava DeAngelis.
The return of Topolewski is huge for the program as she helped make history this past season as the school’s three NCAA qualifiers were the most ever.
Topolewski has also helped the team to Atlantic-10 conference titles in the last two seasons. As a freshman, she captured two A-10 titles winning the 500 in a 4:46.99 and the 1650 free in a 16:27.78. She also was 8th in the 200 fly to score a total of 51 individual points, the 4th most on the team.
This past season as a sophomore, she defended her conference title in the 1650 free swimming a 16:08.48, over 19 seconds faster than she was as a freshman. She also finished 2nd in the 500 freestyle and was 8th in the 200 butterfly. She scored 48 individual points, the 5th most on the team.
She went on to qualify for NCAAs where she finished 39th in the 1650 free in a 16:22.75 and 63rd in the 500 free.
The return of Topolewski at least brings back one NCAA qualifier from this past season as Ava DeAngelis is still in the portal and men’s qualifier Djurdje Matic just finished his redshirt senior season.
The GWU program has also battled to keep its on-campus pool this offseason as plans originally were made to construct a new practice basketball facility in the place of the pool. The school announced at the end of April that it would not go through with construction plans for the foreseeable future as it was found the renovations would have caused structural issues to the building.