Mercersburg Academy had a big weekend at the 2026 Eastern Interscholastic Swimming & Diving Championships, winning the boys title and coming within striking distance of a combined team sweep after the girls finished 15.5 points short of the title.
On the GMM Podcast, Head Coach Matt Hurst breaks down the meet, his team’s performance, and the culture that makes Mercersburg a consistent powerhouse in prep school swimming.
On the boys side, Mercersburg piled up 673 points, comfortably ahead of Phillips Academy (528.5) and Spire Institute (444). The girls scored 643 points to finish behind Germantown Academy’s 658.5.
One of the meet’s breakout stars was senior Matt Krause, who dropped PBs in both the 100 fly (47.90) and 100 back (47.02) before anchoring Mercersburg’s 2:59.30 400 freestyle relay. Krause heads to Indiana next fall. He’s a part of a steady pipeline of swimmers moving from Mercersburg directly into major NCAA programs, and Coach Hurst discusses how he prepares athletes to step into the demands of Power 4 college swimming.
We discuss the girls team’s narrow runner-up finish and what the program takes away from a meet that was essentially decided by a single relay swing. Finally, Hurst breaks down the program’s guiding mission to be the best team and what that actually means inside the program on a daily basis.
If I missed any questions in this podcast, drop them in the comments.
SEE A FULL TRANSCRIPT OF THE PODCAST HERE.
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This is a Gold Medal Media production presented by SwimOutlet.com. Host Gold Medal Mel Stewart is a 3-time Olympic medalist and the co-founder of SwimSwam.com, a Swimming News website.
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Mel should have written this article. Didn’t he go to the Hill school?
😔😔😔😔
Way to go Coach Matt – Proud of the great work you are doing at Mercersburg.