Florida adds European Juniors Medalist Nil Cadevall Micolau For This Fall

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Nils Cadevall Micolau, a three-time silver medalist at last summer’s European Junior Championships, has committed to Florida to join its recruiting class of 2025. A breaststroke and IM specialist, Micolau will bring some serious firepower to Gainesville as Florida looks to replace 100 breaststroke NCAA Champion Julian Smith, who graduated this year.

 

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Best LCM Times (SCY Conversion)

• 50 Breaststroke: 27.50 (23.87)
• 100 Breaststroke: 1:00.31 (52.53)
• 200 Breaststroke: 2:10.92 (1:54.34)
• 200 IM: 1:59.87 (1:45.10)
• 100 Free: 51.18 (44.66)
• 200 Free: 1:53.02 (1:38.93)

At those European Junior Championships, Micolau placed second in the individual 100 breaststroke (1:01.10) and 200 IM (2:00.34), as well as delivering a split of 1:00.73 on Spain’s silver-medal-winning men’s medley relay. That was the fastest breaststroke leg in the field and the only one under 1:01, as he outsplit Max Morgan, a Team GB Worlds team member for Singapore this summer.

He recently competed at the Barcelona stop of the Mare Nostrum tour, where he made the ‘A’ final in the 50 breast (27.64) and 200 breast (2:14.09), and the ‘B’ final in the 100 breast (1:02.19) and 200 IM (2:05.09). A few weeks later he made a splash at the Spanish Senior Championships in Mallorca, breaking Carles Coll Marti’s national record in the 100 breast with a time of 1:00.31, before taking gold in the final in 1:01.01.

He added wins in the 50 (27.50) and 200 (2:10.92) to complete a breaststroke sweep, before breaking 2:00 in the 200 IM for the first time to take silver (1:59.87), less than a tenth behind former NCAA champion Hugo Gonzalez.

Those are some serious LCM times, with Micolau just over half a second off the World Aquatics ‘A’ cut for Singapore this summer. That was also a more than three second drop from just this May, and he has now dropped over five seconds in the event so far this season. Although Spain have not yet announced their World Championships squad for this summer, he may well be on the team for the medley relay at a minimum.

Converted to yards, his best times would have placed just outside scoring position in the 200 IM and in the ‘B’ final for both the 100 breaststroke and 200 breaststroke. However, considering the success Florida has had with Lithuanian National Team member Aleksas Savickas, who holds breaststroke bests of 50.02/1:49.89, those conversion probably undervalue his impact.

He could well be an NCAA qualifier in his freshman season, and will likely bring home some serious points at SECs and, along with Savickas, will give the Gators a strong 1-2 punch in the breaststroke events again this year despite Julian Smith‘s graduation.

Micolau will be part of a small but strong recruiting class for Florida, joining British Olympian Alex Cohoon, U23 European silver medalist Charlie Hutchison, BOTR Jordan Willis and HM Marvin Johnson.

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