Competitor Coach of the Month is a recurring SwimSwam feature shedding light on a U.S.-based coach who has risen above the competition. As with any item of recognition, Competitor Coach of the Month is a subjective exercise meant to highlight one coach whose work holds noteworthy context – perhaps a coach who was clearly in the limelight, or one whose work fell through the cracks a bit more among other stories. If your favorite coach wasn’t selected, feel free to respectfully recognize them in our comment section.
Just over two years into his tenure as head coach of the Mecklenburg Swim Association (MSA), Dave Geyer has elevated the club into one of the best in the country, as was on display at USA Swimming’s Winter Junior Championships – East in mid-December in Indianapolis.
The MSA squad finished 4th in the girls’ team standings and 5th for the boys, ultimately placing them 2nd in the combined team score with 462 points.
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Leading the way for MSA was Mike Rice, the 17-year-old Auburn commit who put on an impressive showing with wins in the boys’ 50 free (19.30) and 100 fly (45.89), a runner-up finish in the 100 free (42.48), and a 3rd-place finish in the 200 free (1:34.96), all in personal best times.
Rice also showed out on the MSA relays, notably splitting 41.99 on the boys’ 400 free relay that finished 6th, and showing off his versatility with a 20.62 fly split on the 200 medley relay and a 52.47 breast leg on the 400 medley relay.
On the girls’ side, MSA had four double-digit scorers, led by Stanford commit Taylor Klein, who set six personal bests and made a pair of ‘A’ finals with a 5th-place finish in the 200 fly (1:56.69/1:56.37 in prelims) and 7th in the 100 fly (52.70) while also placing 11th in the 50 free (22.67) and 18th in the 200 IM (2:00.90).
Most impressive from the girls’ team was their performance on the relays, which picked up three victories.
Klein set a 100 free best time of 49.80 leading off the 400 free relay, and she was followed by Maddy Boland (50.04), Karina Plaza (49.72) and Zetta Bartee (50.23) as they clocked 3:19.79 to narrowly edge out the TAC Titans (3:19.92) for the victory.
Kicking off the meet in the 200 medley relay, Plaza (24.75), Eliza Wallace (26.94), Klein (23.12) and Boland (22.48) blew away the field by over a second to earn victory in 1:37.29, and then later in the meet in the 400 medley relay, Plaza (53.47), Wallace (59.27), Klein (51.56) and Boland (49.58) claimed the title in 3:33.88.
Both backstroke lead-off times for Plaza were lifetime bests, and she also picked up a pair of top-10 finishes individually in the 100 breast (7th) and 400 IM (9th). Now 15, she was recently recognized as our 2025 Swammy Award Winner for the girls’ 13-14 age group.
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They also placed 4th in the 200 free relay, just over three-tenths shy of the win with Boland (23.28), Klein (22.34), Wallace (22.88) and Bartee (22.87) clocking 1:31.37, while in the 800 free relay, Klein led off in a lifetime best of 1:47.94 as the team placed 9th in 7:21.41.
Wallace and Kayda Geyer shone for MSA in the girls’ breaststroke events, with Wallace (59.99) placing 2nd in the 100 breast and Geyer (1:01.90) taking 11th, while in the 200 breast, Geyer (2:12.67) was 5th and Wallace (2:15.67) was 16th.
Back in October, MSA was recognized as a Gold Medal Club in USA Swimming’s Club Excellence Rankings for the first time in team history.
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Had the pleasure of swimming under Dave at LSU and this award is well deserved. An excellent coach and person!
Congrats, Dave & team!
Appreciate the recognition for our program but certainly a team effort from coaches and swimmers from all of our sites. Coach Sean Quinn has done an outstanding job with swimmers mentioned above. Some of which I was fortunate to work with prior to them heading to his training group.
👏🏾