Northwestern Sophomore Aaron Baltaytis To Redshirt 2024-25 Season After Cancer Treatment

Last season, Aaron Baltaytis was an improving freshman at Northwestern, racking up three ‘B’ final finishes at the Big Ten Championships and becoming the team’s primarily butterflyer on the 400 medley relay. But after being diagnosed with testicular cancer this May, Baltaytis decided to put his college swimming career on hold, redshirting the 2024-25 season to focus on recovery.

Baltaytis, who was listed in the “Best of the Rest” category in SwimSwam class of 2023 high school recruit rankings, first discovered a lump on his testicle when he was 15, but doctors constantly told him that it wasn’t an issue. He only began to experience issues with it after his spring break and later discovered that the lump was actually a cancerous tumor. As a result, he had to leave Evanston and finish the rest of the school year online at home in New Jersey to receive treatment.

Treatment for Baltaytis included removing the primary tumor through surgery, as well as a second surgery to remove 27 additional tumors that spread through lymph nodes in his abdomen. He also did four rounds of chemotherapy, with each round being three weeks long. A week after his second abdominal surgery on August 28, he was declared cancer free.

Throughout Baltaytis’ three-month treatment journey, he wasn’t able to swim due to the bacteria present in pools — due to chemotherapy, he was immunocompromised and getting into the water was too risky. Weight training would also put too much strain on his abdominal area, so he resorted to playing golf, pickleball and basketball to stay active while recovery. He also stayed involved in swimming by coaching at his club, the Jersey Flyers Aquatic Club.

However, staying out of the water was difficult mentally for Baltaytis, especially since he planned on representing Lativa at the European Championships in June before having to withdraw.

“Not swimming was really hard,” Baltaytis told SwimSwam. “It was such a big part of my life that taking it away is a lot harder than just choosing to step away from it. So just seeing everybody swim and writing sets for these its, it was really hard just to not be in the pool especially with all these big meets going on.”

In addition, Baltaytis lost 20 pounds after his treatment. For someone who was in peak physical condition while actively swimming, the changes to his body were challenging to process.

However, Baltaytis eventually found a way back. He returned to Northwestern in September to begin his sophomore year, and on November 20, he went back in the water for the first time since his cancer diagnosis.

“I jumped in and I felt like I forgot how to swim, like my body shut down when I felt the water all over my body,” Baltaytis said. “But I was just so happy to be in the pool that I didn’t really care how badly my swimming felt.”

Being rusty and having missed midseason invites, Baltaytis ultimately decided that it would be better for his career to redshirt this season given that he wouldn’t have enough time to prepare for Big Tens. However, he still practices with the team. Initially he swam limited yardage but now has slowly progressed to doing full workouts with the team.

Baltaytis wants to use his cancer experience to encourage other men specifically to speak up more about their health.

“All men just need to be advocates for themselves,” Baltaytis said. “Nobody’s telling you to get a physical or go to the doctor, so after you’re 18 and you stop going to the pediatrician, a lot of men don’t get their physicals.”

“I told doctors what was going on and they kind of belittled my opinion. And I wish retrospectively I could have told them, like, ‘No, something’s wrong. This need to be checked out.'”

Cancer may have taken time out of Baltaytis’s swimming career. However, he still felt that it was an important learning experience to have, and keeping a positive mindset got him through it all.

“I could have sulked this whole time saying how hard my life is or how unfortunate this is,” Baltaytis. “Just having an amazing support system behind me made me positive. It made me know that I could get through this. And it really just taught me this really could happen to anybody.”