Anton Loncar Commits to Impressive Denver Backstroke Group

Anton Loncar from the Hillsboro Swim team in Oregon has verbally committed to the Denver Hilltoppers. That will give this team another very good backstroker: a spot they seem to fill-in with just about every class, and progress very predictably through their senior years, where they ultimately wind up among the conference’s best swimmers.

Loncar has yards bests of 50.80 and 1:47.97 in the 100 and 200 yard backstrokes.

“I chose Denver because I loved the coaching staff, the swimmers, and the team atmosphere,” Loncar said. “Coach (Brian) Schrader has trained some excellent backstrokers so I have no doubt in my mind that I will improve immensely through his program. I am excited to train at altitude, and get some good weight training in. The second I set foot on campus, I knew Denver was where I wanted to go.”

Denver’s men’s and women’s teams will unify this year in the Summit League, but based on what we saw out of the Summit League last year, Loncar has the potential for a pair of top 5 individual finishes in those races even as a freshman at the conference level.

Note that they won’t overlap, but a 2013-2014 senior Kyle Milberg was the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Swimmer of the Year last season from this backstroke group. Milberg’s times coming out of his junior year of high school are effectively the same as Loncar’s (a bit faster in the 100, a bit slower in the 200), and the two are built very similarly at 6’3″ tall, so all of the right signs are there for Loncar’s future.