Big East Champs Runner-Up Connor Morikawa Transfers to Northwestern

Connor Morikawa is transferring to Northwestern University following one full season with Georgetown University, starting in fall 2021. Morikawa is originally from Connecticut, where he trained with Chelsea Piers Aquatic Club.

TOP TIMES (SCY)

• 100 breast – 54.51
• 200 breast – 1:58.20
• 200 IM – 1:49.94
• 400 IM – 4:00.76

Morikawa will be part of Northwestern’s junior class this coming fall — last season, as a freshman at Georgetown, he clocked a 54.51 to finish second at the 2020 Big East Championships in the 100 breast. He was also second in the 200 breast at that meet (1:58.20) and ninth in the 200 IM (1:49.94).

Pre-Georgetown, Morikawa was 54.9/2:00.0 in the breaststrokes and 1:52.1 in the IM. His first and only racing since the pandemic hit was at the 2020 U.S. Open, where he logged a lifetime best 1:01.38 in the 100m breast, nearly three seconds faster than his old best. That time currently clears him for the Wave II Olympic Trials meet (the second meet for the fastest qualifiers).

Last season, the Northwestern men made a significant jump in the Big Ten from ninth at the 2019 conference championships to fifth in 2020. The Wildcats are led in breaststroke by sophomores Kevin Houseman and Marcus Mok; Houseman was an NCAA qualifier last season in the 100 breast, and he went a recent lifetime best (51.76) at a Big Ten tri meet, moving him to the #3 slot in the country this season. Mok, meanwhile, was 53.6/1:54.8 last season in the 100/200 breast as a freshman.

Morikawa would’ve been NU’s #3 200 breaststroker last year, and his 100 breast lifetime best would’ve made the C-final at the 2020 Big Ten Championships.

Morikawa joins the team this coming fall alongside incoming freshmen #9 Tyler Lu, Alex Ispas and Clément Kubica.