Mid-Year Addition Michael Houlie Already at Home with Tennessee

Two-time Junior Worlds finalist Michael Houlie graduated from high school in December and began training with the University of Tennesee just two days before his first meet in January, head coach Matt Kredich told SwimSwam.

Houlie, a South Africa native, was not permitted to join the team until he was officially matriculated into school. So the 17-year-old forwent winter training camp, jumping into college swimming in the midst of the championship season stretch.

“Ordinarily [joining mid-year] is a real challenge for that person. We’ve had a few people do it and it’s challenging because they’re typically the only person who’s going through what they’re going through,” said Kredich. “They join a class that came in four months before, and that class is already bonded. They’ve been introduced to the training, the academic culture.”

“But Michael is just an extraordinary young man and it seemed like after a couple of days that he had been here all along… He’s just a tremendously magnetic personality and he seems to be able to be at home almost anywhere that he is. He was thrilled to be here and the team just brought him in immediately, and although I’m sure he’s had an adjustment period to the training and to the school life, it seems just from my perspective that it’s been as seamless as it could be.”

The logistics of coming to the States amid the holiday season proved slightly challenging for Houlie’s training, however. While he wasn’t “out of shape,” per se, Kredich noted that the effects of inconsistent training over an approximately month-long transition were apparent.

“You just get out of rhythm,” he said. “So it took him a little while to get into just the rhythm of training, but I think as far as strength, as far as endurance goes, he was fine and it didn’t take him long to adapt.”

And now that Houlie is settled, he’s quickly learning. While his signature race strategy has historically been to “fly and die,” or take out his swim at top speed then come home with whatever he has left, assistant coach Lance Asti is with him on better distributing energy.

In his best long course 200 breast, Houlie split 29.60/36.06/36.22/35.09, and in his best 100, 28.36/33.13. In his first collegiate short course yards meet, he split 25.90/30.75/33.41/32.98 in the 200 and 24.41/29.29 in the 100.

“We certainly don’t want to take away his strength, and he has fantastic speed and a real understanding of how to create speed. I think from watching just a few races, especially 200s, I think what we’re trying to do is figure out where his fatigue comes from, and how he can still tap into that front-half speed and enthusiasm and still be able to finish his race with the same kind of energy,” said Kredich. “He made a huge improvement just from his first 100 breaststroke against Virginia to the second against Georgia, where his second half really, to me, showed no signs of fading. He’s got great speed and now we want to help him be able to use that in more than just in the front half of the race.”