2023 men’s NCAA Elite 90 Award winner Derek Maas has announced via Instagram that he will be using his COVID-19 fifth year while beginning medical school at Division III NYU.
Maas, originally from Holland, Michigan (west side of Michigan), spent his undergraduate career at Alabama. As a junior during the 2021-2022 season, Maas made huge strides. Maas won the men’s 100 and 200 breaststrokes at SECs, winning the 100 in a 50.78 and the 200 in a 1:51.56. He also was second in the 200 IM at SECs, finishing behind Luca Urlando. He went on to make the ‘A’ final at NCAAs, finishing seventh in the 100 breast.
As a senior, Maas was fifth in both breaststroke events as well as seventh in the 200 IM at SECs. At 2023 NCAAs, Maas was eigth in the 100 breast and 10th in the 200 breast.
Maas’ best SCY times are:
- 100 breast: 50.78
- 200 breast: 1:51.53
- 200 IM: 1:42.59
The NYU men were 13th at Divison III 2023 NCAAs. Their highest finish came from Connor Vincent who was third in the 1650 freestyle. The team had no finalists in the 100 or 200 breast and only one ‘B’ finalist in the 200 IM.
Maas has the potential to be a huge boost to the team. His best times would have won the Divison III title in the 100 breast by over two seconds, the 200 breast by over two seconds, and the 200 IM by over three seconds. In addition to the potential for individual titles, Maas also has the potential to break the Divison III all-time records. US Olympian Andrew Wilson holds the 100 breast (50.94), 200 breast (1:50.80), and 200 IM (1:44.18).
In addition to winning the Elite 90 award, which is given to the swimmer with the highest GPA at the NCAA Championships, Maas also won the 2023 SEC Male Community Service Leader of the Year.
College swimming and first year of med school….good luck, my dude, good luck
NYU reaching new levels of mystery recruiting tactics
Our family was at the airport waiting for our next leg as we were traveling to a TYR Pro Series meet, when Derek’s dad noticed our son’s swim bag and approached him. He spent the next half hour in deep discussion with our 17yr. old discussing his individual breast time as well as his relay splits. Then once at the meet we noticed Dr. Maas was sitting a few rows down and had the entire Alabama group cheering for the high school kid he had just met. What a great example of wanting the best for kids, regardless of what team they are affiliated with. Congrats to Derek, his family and his soon-to-be NYU swim family! We wish him the… Read more »
Bro is about to have a field day at D3 NCAA 🤣
Derek is a class act guy and extremely hard working swimmer and student. Swimswam commenters always finding reasons to talk down smh.
as a former d3 swimmer and fan I am still reeling/laughing about this. There have been some very impactful D1 transfers in the past, but this is next level. The closest precedents I can think of are Harrison Curley (Florida->Kenyon), and Ian Rainey (Michigan->NYU). Rainey was a 3:45 4IM and Curley was a 3:46 4IM. Both ended up being national champions in d3. But neither of them were at Maas’ level and also didn’t have as much potential to single-handedly change relays.
A lot of people have raised valid points about how difficult it will be for Maas to swim at his best while doing med school, but even a year being solidly off best times could equate to… Read more »
How will this affect the NYU SBA? He will definitely make an immediate impact on whichever team drafts him – an all-around scorer with high basketball IQ. He’s gonna put the league on notice!
That’s cool! Sounds like a great plan. Congratulations to him. No reason a strong student can’t swim a handful of days a week (and miss a practice here and there before exams)- good to have a stress release frankly. Contrary to some posts in this thread it is entirely possible as a first/second year med student to find time for something like this during the classwork phase of med school. D1 swimming would be another story of course but that’s not what this is. Once he gets to clinical rotations this is much more challenging (from very hard to impossible, depending on the specific rotation). But that’s not what we are talking about. During any year it is possible to… Read more »
nyu doesn’t only practice a few days a week though. they have a full practice schedule. but i’m sure he’s gonna be allowed to miss quite a few practices
Right. I didn’t say only a few days per week.