Alabama Record Holder Mateo Miceli Announces Transfer to Louisville

Rising junior Mateo Miceli announced on Tuesday his intention to transfer from Alabama to Louisville for his remaining years of NCAA eligibility after entering the portal in late April.

The 6-foot-4 butterfly specialist is coming off a fantastic sophomore campaign in Tuscaloosa that saw him drop nearly three full seconds in the 200 fly and set a new Crimson Tide program record during his fifth-place finish at the 2023 SEC Championships in 1:42.02. That time stood as a top-25 mark nationally at the end of last season and would have placed him third at the 2023 ACC Championships.

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Miceli also placed 10th in the 100 fly at SECs in February with a personal-best 45.95, which would have placed 12th at ACCs. He couldn’t quite replicate his best times at NCAAs the following month, placing outside the top 30 in the prelims of both his signature events.

Miceli is more than a second faster than the quickest Louisville swimmer in the 200 fly last season as sophomore Tommy Bried led the Cardinals with a 1:43.71. In the 100 fly, he’ll slated to be the second-fastest on the team, still chasing soon-to-be senior Dalton Lowe (45.28).

Best Times (SCY)

• 200 fly – 1:42.02, top-25 time nationally
• 100 fly – 45.95
• 200 back – 1:43.79
• 100 back – 47.71

Louisville boasts a young roster with only a handful of seniors on its men’s squad. Miceli’s arrival brings more veteran leadership to the team after senior Abdelrahman Elaraby, the ACC champion in the men’s 50 freestyle, announced in April that he’s transferring to Notre Dame for his fifth year of eligibility.

Louisville head coach Arthur Albiero has led the Cardinals for the past 20 years, successfully developing butterfly specialists in the past such as former American record holder Kelsi Worrell Dahlia and his kids, Nick and Gabi Albiero. Last season, the Louisville men placed 3rd at the 2023 ACC Championships with 981.5 points behind Virginia Tech (1,008) and NC State (1,615) and 13th at the NCAA Championships with 92 points.

Miceli’s departure marks yet another hole that Alabama needs to fill this offseason. He was the Crimson Tide’s fastest swimmer in both the 100 fly and 200 fly last season. Alabama added Northwestern associate head coach Andrew Hodgson to its staff last week, but the Crimson Tide are still down an associate head coach after both Ozzie Quevedo and James Barber left the program. Last season, the Alabama men placed 19th at NCAAs in their second season under head coach Margo Geer, snapping a streak of eight straight top-15 finishes. Miceli was the fourth Crimson Tide swimmer to enter the transfer portal after sophomore Linus Kahl (breaststroke/IM), sophomore Jackson Dement (freestyle), and senior Jocelyn Fisher (breaststroke/butterfly/IM).