2025 College Swimming Previews: Urlando and Magahey Return As #11 Georgia Eyes Top 10 Finish

It’s that time of the year again. SwimSwam will be previewing the top 12 men’s and women’s teams (and then some) from the 2024 NCAA Championships. Follow along with the College Swimming Preview Channel and the College Swimming Preview Compendium. Want to read even more? Check out the latest edition of the SwimSwam magazine. 

#11 Georgia Bulldogs

Key Losses: Dillon Downing (3 NCAA points, 3 NCAA relays, Bradley Dunham (13 NCAA points, 5 NCAA relays), Ian Grum (10 NCAA points), Miles Simon (1 NCAA relay)

Key Additions: Luca Urlando (50 NCAA points – 2022), Kristian Pitshugin (2 NCAA relays – 2023), Tommy-Lee Camblong (25 SEC points – 2023), Drew Hitchcock (GA – fly/back/IM), Will Gavin (GA – free), Thomas Askew (CCS “transfer”/NJ – fly/back), Elliot Woodburn (England – breast), Kyler Heffner (GA – free), Bo Bridges (GA – diving), Renato Calderaro (Italy – diving), Aiden Sadler (GA – diving)

Returning Fifth Years: Jake Magahey (32 NCAA points, 1 NCAA relay), Connor Haigh (1 NCAA relay), Wesley Ng (1 NCAA relay)

GRADING CRITERIA

Over the years, we’ve gone back and forth on how to project points, ranging from largely subjective rankings to more data-based grading criteria based on ‘projected returning points.’ We like being as objective as possible, but we’re going to stick with the approach we’ve adopted post-Covid. The “stars” will rely heavily on what swimmers actually did last year, but we’ll also give credit to returning swimmers or freshmen who have posted times that would have scored last year.

Since we only profile the top 12 teams in this format, our grades are designed with that range in mind. In the grand scheme of college swimming and compared to all other college programs, the top 12 NCAA programs would pretty much all grade well across the board. But in the interest of making these previews informative, our grading scale is tough – designed to show the tiers between the good stroke groups, the great ones, and the 2015 Texas fly group types.

• 5 star (★★★★★) – a rare, elite NCAA group projected to score 25+ points per event
• 4 star (★★★★) – a very, very good NCAA group projected to score 15-24 points per event
• 3 star (★★★) – a good NCAA group projected to score 5-14 points per event
• 2 star (★★) – a solid NCAA group projected to score 1-4 points per event
• 1 star (★) –  an NCAA group that is projected to score no points per event, though that doesn’t mean it’s without potential scorers – they’ll just need to leapfrog some swimmers ahead of them to do it

We’ll grade each event discipline: sprint free (which we define to include all the relay-distance freestyle events, so 50, 100, and 200), distance free, IM, breaststroke, backstroke, butterfly, and diving. Use these grades as a jumping-off point for discussion, rather than a reason to be angry.

Also, keep in mind that we are publishing many of these previews before teams have posted finalized rosters. We’re making our assessments based on the best information we have available at the time of publication, but we reserve the right to make changes after publication based on any new information that may emerge regarding rosters. If that does happen, we’ll make certain to note the change.

2023-24 LOOKBACK

After a slow start to the regular season, the Georgia Bulldogs picked up momentum during their midseason invites and didn’t look back. Armed with a contingent of experienced fifth-years, Georgia hit its peak at the 2024 SEC Championships. After a 5th place finish in 2023 (828.5 points), the Bulldogs placed third last season with 1042 points as the majority of their roster had their best performances of the season in Auburn.

Several swimmers hadn’t mastered the art of the double taper but even so, Georgia also improved from 2023 at the 2024 NCAA Championships. Led by Jake Magahey’s 32 individual points and four scoring relays, the 14 qualified Bulldogs cracked the 100-point mark at the 2024 NCAAs and finished 11th with 116 points. That was an improvement in both place and standings, as in 2023 they were 12th with 96 points.

SPRINT FREE: ★

It’s worth repeating at the top of this section that one star in a discipline doesn’t mean the group can’t or won’t score at the NCAA Championships. Georgia’s sprinters didn’t earn any individual points last year, but their lifetime bests indicate they are capable of doing so.

Reese Branzell returns for Georgia as their best pure sprinter. He swam lifetime bests in all three of his primary events last season, going 19.38/41.44/1:32.26 at 2024 SECs, earning ‘A’ final berths in the 100/200 freestyle. His 41.44 in the 100 freestyle—which he did leading off the 400 free relay—would make the NCAA ‘B’ final but he was off his best at NCAAs and finished 25th. That will be a theme for the Georgia men in this preview, but it means that they should arrive for this season with confidence and direction, as it won’t be hard to see where they can improve.

Georgia returns no NCAA points in the 50/100 freestyle as Dillon Downing has graduated. Further, Branzell is the only swimmer who swam the 50/100 free combo at NCAAs, showing that Georgia’s freestyle strengths lie in the longer disciplines.

Ruard Van Renen is the only returning swimmer besides Branzell to swim the 50 free at NCAAs. He clocked a lifetime best 19.51 in prelims. He’s primarily a backstroker but can be counted on for points in the 50 free at the conference level.

In the 100 freestyle, Tomas Koski joins Branzell as a returning NCAA-qualifying swimmer. Koski had an excellent freshman year as a Bulldog, qualifying for NCAAs and registering PBs in his primary events. The 100 free is the shorter end of his range as his best events are the 200/500 freestyle. We’ll get to his 500 free later, but in the 200 free, he’s been as fast as 1:31.93, which he swam for 5th at SECs. It would have earned him a spot in the NCAA ‘B’ final, but he added and finished 21st.

Magahey moved away from swimming the 200 freestyle individually last season, instead taking on the 400 IM. He’s still a key piece of their 800 freestyle relay; he put up a 1:30.96 split at SECs and then a 1:31.57 split at NCAAs.

Georgia’s recruits largely represent the team’s strength in the 200 freestyle and above. Neither Will Gavin nor Kyler Heffner is a pure sprinter, though Gavin brings in 44.32/1:36.84 bests. Heffner swims down to the 200 free, where he owns a 1:38.29 PB.

Luca Urlando’s return gives Georgia bests of 41.71/1:33.33 in the 100/200 free to work with, though he’ll likely contribute to the sprint-free effort only on relays.

DISTANCE FREE: ★★★

Magahey announced his presence in the 500 free in 2021 when he clocked 4:06.71—still the fourth-fastest time in history. He went on to upset Kieran Smith at the 2021 NCAAs and has been incredibly consistent in the event as his lowest NCAA finish is 3rd place. He reclaimed the SEC title last season as well with a 4:09.38. Per USA Swimming, he owns the most sub-4:08 swims in history with four and he remains a title threat for his fifth year.

Magahey did not swim the 1650 freestyle at the 2024 NCAAs, instead going for the 200 fly, but he owns a lifetime best of 14:24.96 2nd, 4th, and 3rd at NCAAs, which can’t be ignored.

Now, back to Koski. He just missed a second swim at the 2024 NCAAs with an 18th-place finish. He won the SEC ‘B’ final in 4:12.29, which would have earned him a ticket to finals in the 500 free. Still, he had a huge year in this race, dropping 10.06 seconds over the course of the season. When he arrived in Athens with a 4:22.35 best, making the NCAA finals wouldn’t have been the top priority, but it surely will be this season.

Sam Powe also added SEC points in the 500 freestyle, finishing 15th. He missed his lifetime best at both SECs and NCAAs (46th), which is a 4:16.35 from the 2023 Georgia Fall Invite.

Heffner brings in a lifetime best of 4:23.28, slightly slower than Koski when he got to UGA. As we said in the sprint free section, Heffer is most at home in the distance events and owns a 15:34.94 personal best in the 1650 freestyle to go with his 500 free time.

With Magahey out of the 1650 free, Georgia had no swimmers in the event at SECs or NCAAs, which hurts their overall score in this discipline. However, Tommy-Lee Camblong returns to the roster after an Olympic redshirt, which helps their cause at the conference level. In 2023, Camblong finished 14th in the 500 freestyle and 15th in the 1650 freestyle.

BACKSTROKE: ★★★

Backstroke was a huge strength for the Bulldogs last season. Their power was on full display at SECs, when they put six men into the 100 backstroke finals and five into the 200 backstroke finals, with four of those swimmers in the ‘A’ final.

The power takes a hit with the graduations of Dillon Downing, Bradley Dunham, and Ian Grum, but the Bulldogs have options. Chief among them: the 100 backstroke American record holder, Luca Urlando.

The 2022 NCAAs were full of surprises, but arguably the most unexpected swim was Urlando taking down Ryan Murphy’s American record with a 43.35 leading off the 400 medley relay. He didn’t even swim the race individually and still might not upon his return to the NCAA this season. Urlando has a versatile skillset and in the past has opted for the 200 IM, 100 fly, and 200 fly lineup. In 2022, he finished top three in each of his individual events and will be a favorite in all three this season, which may keep him out of the individual 100 backstroke.

In that case, Ruard van Renen will likely be UGA’s top backstroker. He now has a year of Power 5 experience under his belt after transferring to UGA from SIU last season. Van Renen has already made his mark at Georgia—he’s second in program history in the 100 backstroke behind only Urlando and owns top 10 times in three other individual events.

He scored 12 points at NCAAs, touching 7th in the 100 backstroke after a PB of 44.21 in the heats. He missed qualifying for the 200 back finals like he did in 2023, but his 1:39.54 PB from SECs would’ve earned him a repeat trip to the ‘B’ final. This season, he projects as a finalist in both backstrokes.

Sam Powe had a strong sophomore season, swimming personal bests in nine events. He qualified for NCAAs in the 500 free, 100 back, and 200 back; like many of his teammates, he was at his best earlier in the season and missed finals with his highest finish coming in the 200 backstroke (29th). The 200 back is his best event, and his lifetime best of 1:39.96 from the Georgia Fall Invite would’ve been 17th at NCAAs, just missing a finals berth. Between his times and a 40-point showing at 2024 SECs, Powe showed he can be in the mix to score at NCAAs, he just needs to learn to put it all together at the right time.

SEC ‘B’ finalists Mitchell Norton (100/200 back) and Aaron Seymour (100 back) also return, though they need to drop some time to qualify for NCAAs.

We’re assuming Urlando doesn’t race the 100 backstroke indivdually and giving this group three stars, though there’s lots of room for them to move up from that projection.

BREASTSTROKE: ★

Breaststroke is a weakness for the Georgia men. Last year, Connor Haigh and Arie Voloschin were the team’s go-to breaststrokers. Both contributed at the conference level with a pair of ‘B’ finals (100/200 breaststroke) with Haigh recording their highest finish in the discipline by placing 10th in the 200 breast (1:55.05). Haigh swam personal bests 52.94/1:55.05, earning 30 points, and Voloschin clocked 52.79/1:55.94 en route to 25 points.

After swimming NCAA ‘B’ cuts in both breaststroke events, Haigh and Voloschin both made the trip to 2024 NCAAs as relay swimmers, with swimming on the DQed 400 medley relay and Voloschin pulling breaststroke duties on the 14th place 200 medley relay (23.98 split).

The breaststroke group gets reinforcements this season as Kristian Pitshugin returns after an Olympic redshirt year. In his freshman season with Georgia, Pitshugin climbed to 8th in school history with a 52.91 100 breaststroke. He scored in the event at 2023 SECs and just missed the ‘C’ final in the 200 breaststroke.

Elliot Woodburn arrives in Athens from England this fall. He’ll join the breaststroke group with lifetime bests of 1:02.01/2:24.32 in the LCM 100/200 breaststroke. How he adjusts to yards is going to dictate how quickly he’ll contribute points at championship meets, but the potential is there, and filling out this group is important, especially since Haigh and Voloschin are in their graduate and senior years.

BUTTERFLY: ★★★★

It’s hard to overstate the value Urlando brings to the Georgia butterfly group. Though he last swam at NCAAs in 2022, where he finished 3rd in the 100 fly and 2nd in the 200 fly, his personal bests would’ve earned him 2nd place in the 100 fly (43.80) and 3rd in the 200 fly (1:38.82) at 2024 NCAAs for 33 points. So, even after an extended absence from the league, Urlando still projects to be a 50+ point scorer at NCAAs.

As mentioned earlier, Magahey played around with his event lineup last season and one of the moves he made was swapping the 1650 free for the 200 fly, an event he hadn’t swum since 2020. His lifetime best was from 2019 (1:47.12) and he popped a 1:41.28 to finish 3rd at 2024 SECs, representing a 5.84-second drop over the season. He scored at NCAAs, finishing 15th in 1:41.81, slightly off his best.

There are also some interesting additions to the butterfly group this season. While Drew Hitchcock (the #5 recruit in his high school class) projects primarily as an IMer, it currently looks like the 200 fly will be his third event. Hitchcock owns a personal best of 1:43.26, which would’ve earned a ‘B’ final berth at the 2024 SECs and should still be a conference-scoring time even with Texas joining the SEC.

Van Renen and Wesley Ng return to the roster as SEC scorers in the 100 butterfly. Van Renen swam a lifetime best 45.84 and finished 8th overall, while Ng won the ‘C’ final in a season-best 46.13. Last season, Van Renen did not swim this event at NCAAs, going for 50 free/100 back/200 back.

And after dominating the college club season, junior Thomas Askew has made the jump to the NCAA. Askew is a 5x college club champion; in 2024 he set a CSS record every day of the championships and won four of his career titles, sweeping the three butterfly events (21.14/46.82/1:48.26) and adding the 100 backstroke (49.49). Those butterfly PBs would’ve put him 3rd and 4th on the UGA depth chart last season. It took 47.06/1:45.84 to score at 2024 SECs,   which means Askew’s in a position to put some more conference points on the board for UGA in the butterfly events. Gavin, primarily a 200/500 freestyler, could make the 200 fly his third event thanks to his 1:47.92 lifetime best.

IM:★★★★

Similarly to the butterfly events, Urlando will return as a title threat in the 200 IM. He was third in the race in 2022, swimming a personal best of 1:39.22, which would’ve placed 2nd in 2024 (remember Marchand did the 500 free instead of the 200 IM). As a versatile swimmer, Urlando has options for his event lineup, but this one will likely stay fixed as neither of the other Day 2 championship events suits him.

Magahey’s focus on the 400 IM paid off for Georgia. He often struggled to make it back for NCAA finals in the 200 free, but he had no such trouble in the 400 IM. He qualified for the ‘A’ final and moved up to 5th in the final, powering to a lifetime best of 3:37.64, which ranks 3rd in school history.

Hitchcock will also be an asset to Georgia’s IMs. He has the fastest 200 IM in his high school class with a 1:43.48, which would’ve been 2nd on the 23-24 roster behind the now-graduated Grum. He needs to drop a bit there to be an NCAA final factor, but his 3:41.81 400 IM would’ve snuck him into the 2024 NCAA ‘B’ final in 16th place. With so many of their biggest contributors graduated, the fact that Hitchcock arrives on campus capable of scoring at NCAAs makes him very valuable to UGA.

Georgia doesn’t return any IM conference scorers besides Magahey, though Aaron Seymour and Cooper Cook were just outside scoring range in the 200 IM. Though it’s a small group capable of scoring at NCAAs, Urlando, Magahey, and Hitchcock pack enough punch to award 4 stars to the Georgia IMers.

DIVING: ★

The Bulldogs only brought one diver to the 2024 NCAAs: Allan Mann, who finished 42nd in platform diving. Their diving squad is more productive at the conference level, where Nolan Lewis (38 points), Matthew Bray (15 points), and Rhett Hopkins (13 points) all contributed points.

All four return to the 2024-25 roster, and they’ve also added three freshman divers: Bo Bridges, Renato Calderaro, and Aiden Sadler. Diving is an increasingly important discipline for the Bulldogs. They need contributions on the boards to stay competitive at the SEC Championships against Florida, Auburn, Texas A&M, Tennessee, and now Texas, all of which have strong diving squads.

RELAYS: ★★★

There’s no way around it: Georgia’s relays have taken a hit. It’s the discipline where the graduation of their mass of 2024 fifth-years is most keenly felt as they’ve lost at least one leg on every relay.

The biggest areas of concern are the 200 and 400 freestyle relays, where only Branzell returns. In 2022, Urlando raced all the relays but the 200 medley, so his return helps somewhat, but the Bulldogs will still need to replace half the relay. Van Renen will likely come onboard the 200 freestyle relay, and it may take some trial and error during the regular season to find the remaining members of both relays.

In the 800 freestyle relay, Koski and Magahey return, which is a solid foundation to build on. This is UGA’s best relay, finishing 2nd at SECs (6:06.79) and 5th at NCAAs (6:08.13). Urlando—who swam a 1:30.58 relay split in 2022—adds another strong piece as that would’ve been the team’s fastest split at both SECs and NCAAs.

Georgia has also lost two legs of the 200 medley relay. On paper, this is the easiest relay to fully reload. If they keep Urlando out, then the obvious pair to add are Van Renen on backstroke and Branzell on freestyle. Pitshugin, a member of the school-record holding relay in 2023, will also be available to come on board.

Then, they need to replace Dunham’s butterfly leg on the 400 medley relay. This is an interesting conundrum for Georgia; it seems ridiculous to not use Urlando, the 100-back NCAA record holder, to lead off the relay. But, it may turn out to be in their best interest. Urlando has proven his speed in the 100 fly too, and it could mean a faster relay if he’s on fly and van Renen stays the backstroker.

At the 2024 NCAAs, Georgia scored in four of the five relays. They likely would have made it five-for-five, but a disqualification in the 400 medley relay cost them (That was their second NCAA disqualification in this relay in as many years). The 800 freestyle relay will likely remain their best and though they have a lot of replacing to do, Urlando’s speed gives them room to move up in at least the 400 medley relay.

Total Stars: 20/40

2024-25 OUTLOOK

Despite impactful losses during the offseason, Georgia’s got a lot to be positive about. They’ve got Urlando back, and Magahey returns for his fifth year. Olympic redshirts return, and they’ve brought in several intriguing recruits.

Georgia’s been fighting off a major rebuild for a couple of seasons and that may be where they’re headed after this year. But Urlando alone adds 50 NCAA points individually, and for a team looking to build off an upswing in 2024 while welcoming Texas to their conference, that’s the kind of push they need. It’s also a difference-maker at the national level, where the door is wide open for Georgia to return to the top ten, especially after last year’s 10th-place finishers Notre Dame, are suspended for at least this season. In 2024, they finished 16 points behind Notre Dame for 10th place.

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