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.

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MURILO MARTINS
10 years ago

Great job Coach James and good luck Anton!

James Resare
10 years ago

This guy is a class act. Really does his best with our club to stress the importance of team and takes a lot of time to work with, and give advice to, the younger generation. He had a great group of Backstrokers that mentored him when he was younger (Connor McDonald, Will Gunderson, and Austin Ringquist) and he literally “fights” everyday to uphold the commitment to excellence he learned from them in training and in the race pool.

Anton was a B Finalist this summer at USA Swimming Junior Nationals in the 200m BK– his first summer Junior Meet– and left so hungry for more. Coach Schrader and his staff will do an amazing job helping him reach and achieve… Read more »

About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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