At last week’s big round of mid-season invitationals, we were able to identify* four collegiate programs that had men on their ‘A’, ‘B’, and ‘C’ 200 medley relays split under 24 seconds in the 50 breaststroke:
- Indiana University
- The University of Texas
- The University of Alabama
- Loyola University Maryland
*We know you’ll let us know if we missed one
Anything jump out in that list?
There aren’t many athletic lists in any sport where those four schools are grouped together.
That’s not a dig at Loyola, either. The school has a good mid-major athletics program and has one of the best collegiate lacrosse programs in the country (including NCAA titles).
The swimming program has achieved a lot of success too under head coach Brian Loeffler, who has led the team for 37 years.
But they don’t have anywhere near the resources or recruiting cache that juggernaut programs in the Big Ten and SEC do, and for for them to have that much depth in any one thing jumps off the page.
The ‘A’ relay featured freshman Brennan Coyle splitting 23.35 (leading the team to a Pool and Meet Record of 1:25.15). The ‘B’ relay featured senior Michael Gozdan (23.70) and a 2nd place finish. The ‘C’ relay featured junior Michael Venit (23.69) and a 3rd place finish.
The team won the Patriot League title in this event last season in 1:24.79 where 5th year Max Verheyen split 23.64 – which means that even after graduating their top breaststroker from last season, they’ve still demonstrated an enticing depth.
Individually, Coyle swam 53.53, Gozdan swam 53.67, and Venit swam 53.87 in the 100 breaststroke. Those times rank them 3rd, 4th, and 5th all-time in program history. While none of those swims will make it to NCAAs, they are only one of three schools outside of the Power 4 conferences (the others being Yale and Princeton) who have three breaststrokers under 54 seconds this season.
Loeffler credits the internal team culture and competition for helping push this group forward.
“With everything we do we focus on healthy internal competition,” Loeffler said. “Men and women want to be part of our Patriot League team, as well as A relays. They push each other in practice and in meets and we rely on the times to drive our decisions not who we think will be fast. It has worked for us in the past. It can make for difficult decisions but it is better than the alternative of not having the depth.”
While Gozdan is graduating after this season, the Greyhounds will continue to reload in this group. In the class of 2025, they have added two more breaststrokers: Jack Hathaway from Cavalier Aquatics in Virginia, who swam a best time of 55.29 in the 100 breaststroke and split 25.88 on a medley relay at his last meet earlier this month; and Derek Feldman, a combo sprint freestyler and breaststroker from the Central Bucks Swim Team in Pennsylvania who has been 56.5 in the 100 and split 25.10 on a medley relay at last year’s PIAA 3A High School State Championship meet.
They are both already faster than any of the three guys above were in November of their senior seasons in high school. More of that internal competition is coming.
After a further look, Loyola appears to be the only one of the group here to have 3 swimmers split 23.70 or faster