Artúr Osváth, from Budapest, Hungary, has verbally committed to head coach Dave Collins and the Missouri State University men’s swimming and diving team for the 2015-16 season.
“It has been a dream of mine to be able to go to college in the United States, and Coach Collins is giving me the chance to start a great journey. I heard about MSU because of its reputation and because another Hungarian swimmer, Dora Kiss is on the team right now as a junior flyer/freestyler.
Because of the helping and open-minded coaching team and a hard-working group of athletes, Missouri State is a perfect place for a swimmer like me with both athletics and academic goals.”
Osvath is mainly a breaststroker, not surprising from a country that has produced Olympic medalists such as Joe Szabo, Agnes Kovacs and Daniel Gyurta. He also does IM, butterfly and freestyle, from the 50s through the 200s.
Osvath competed at the European Junior Championships in Dordrecht this past summer. He went a PB in the 200 breast in prelims with 2:15.7 before dropping another second in the semi-finals. That race, however, ended with his disqualification; otherwise he would have likely made the podium.
Osvath has had more success in short course meters than in long course. Although it doesn’t correlate perfectly, a quick conversion of his times indicate he could be around a 2:00 200 breaststroker and a 1:52 200 IMer. That breaststroke time would have been one of MSUs top five swims last season; the IM time is about 1.5 seconds off the list. Still, both would have scored at MAC Championships.
“I look forward to helping the Missouri State swimming and diving team through the in-season dual meets, and also I hope I can be one of the next NCAA qualifiers after Paul Le and Uvis Kalnins.”