USC Trojans vs. Hawaii Rainbow Warriors/Wahine
- October 11-12, 2024
- Uytengsu Aquatic Center, Los Angeles, California (USC)
- Short Course Yards (25 yards)
- Full Meet Results
- Team Scores
- Women: #9 USC 226 – Hawaii 81
- Men: #17 USC 220.5 – Hawaii 85.5
The USC Trojans deviated from their usual season-opener at the SMU Classic last weekend, and instead hosted the three session USC Swim Invite, which was in effect a swimming-only dual meet with Hawaii.
The meet had the full NCAA Championship lineup with the exception of no 800 free relay.
The meet was the first intercollegiate under the program’s new head coach Steve Allnutt.
Men’s Recap
Meet Highlights:
- Twin brothers Krzysztof and Michal Chmielewski, fresh off the Olympics, combined for 9 wins, including relays.
- USC freshman Junhao Chan upended a deep Trojan breaststroke group to win the 100 and the 200.
- Karol Ostrowski led Hawaii with an individual win in the 100 free and a fast anchor split for the Rainbow Warriors’ winning 400 free relay.
Twin brothers Krzysztof Chmielewski and Michal Chmielewski lead the way into their sophomore seasons for the Trojans after both making Olympic appearances for Poland over the summer.
Krzysztof, who was 4th at the Olympics in the 200 fly, won the yards version of the event this weekend in 1:43.88. That’s slower than he was to open last season by a couple of seconds, but he’s in a very different spot coming out of the Olympic Games. He also won the 500 free in 4:17.88, which is almost as fast as he was in that race at NCAAs last year – a meet where he was well-shy of his personal best.
The two brothers both focus on the 200 fly in long course, but in the opener this year they avoided each other on the schedule. Michal won the 100 back (48.64) by a tenth over his teammate Griffin O’Leary; the 100 fly in 47.65; and the 1650 free in 15:17.32.
The distance freestyles were a bit of a mid-season revelation for both Krysztof and Michal last season, and it seems like early on in this season, the Trojans are going to lean into that and see where it takes them. That was Michal’s first-ever official time in the 1650 free.
Junhao Chan, a freshman from Singapore, was one of the big prizes of a very good men’s recruiting class for USC that ranked 13th in the country, and he backed that up in his USC debut. A 1:00 long course breaststroker, his first attempt in yards came out at 52.76.
USC returns two NCAA breaststroke qualifiers on the men’s side, Ben Dillard and Chris O’Grady, but Chan beat them both last weekend in the 100. O’Grady was 2nd in 53.23 and Dillard was 3rd in 54.61.
Chan also won the 200 breaststroke in 1:55.48; this time, O’Grady was 2nd in 1:58.09 and Dillard was 3rd in 2:00.19.
Other newcomers who excelled in their debut included Danish freshman Oliver Sogaard-Andersen. A more sprint-oriented swimmer for most of his young career, his range was stretched in his first meet for USC. He placed 2nd in the 500 free (4:30.82), won the 200 free by a hundredth over Krzysztof Chmielewski (1:36.58), and was 2nd in the 100 free (44.37).
The swimmer who beat him in that 100 free was Karol Ostrowski, a former NCAA Division II Champion who is in his second season at Hawaii. He won the 100 free in 43.45. Last season, he joined the Hawaii varsity mid-season (after training there throughout the fall semester), and just-missed qualifying for NCAAs.
He also anchored Hawaii’s winning 400 free relay that finished in 2:56.26. Ostrowski split 43.29 and combined with Victor Dagenais (44.67), Jordan Meacham (43.64), and Milan Bukovics (43.29). That relay beat out USC by more than a second (2:57.51) using four swimmers from four different countries: none of which are the United States.
USC’s relay also had four swimmers from four different countries, including American and Stanford transfer Luke Maurer, who split 44.15. He is the son of USC head coach Lea Maurer.
Those were the only two wins of the day for Hawaii, with USC otherwise sweeping the day.
Women’s Recap
Meet Highlights:
- Caroline Famous swam a pair of fast 100 backstrokes, including 52.24 to win the individual race.
- Macky Hodges kicked off her sophomore season with fast times both in her primary events (200 free – 1:45.93) and in secondary events.
- Hawaii’s Catherine Belyakov, a transfer from Duke, won the 100 breaststroke in the absence of USC’s Katherine Dobler.
The USC women were without their star Kaitlyn Dobler, who is on the Trojans’ roster for her 5th season of eligibility, at the meet. She finished 3rd in the 100 breaststroke at last year’s NCAA Championships.
Even without her, though, USC won all-but-one race on the weekend. That included a hand in seven wins each for freestylers Caroline Famous and Minna Abraham, who managed to avoid each other head-to-head at the meet.
Famous split 52.30 on the leadoff leg of the 400 medley relay to open the meet, leading a dominating 3:37.05 win for USC.
Note: Minna Abraham‘s anchor split on that relay recorded as 46.82. Given that Genevieve Sasseville’s fly split recorded as 56.12, and she was 54.7 in the individual event, it seems like there is a timing error on the back end of that relay.
Famous then shaved a few hundredths off with a 52.24 in the individual 100 back, using a monster front-half split of 25.34 (and still closing in 26.90) to win the race comfortably.
Famous later won the 50 free in 22.48 and the 100 fly in 53.38.
Famous, who started fast last season, has had a huge progression at USC, progressing from a 54-mid backstroker out of high school to one of the best backstrokers in the NCAA heading into her 5th year. Her 100 back time now ranks her 4th in the NCAA early in the season.
Abraham, meanwhile, won the 200 IM in 1:59.76, using a fast final 50 split to out-touch her teammate Ashley McMillan (1:59.99); the 400 IM in 4:09.36 (by a huge margin); and the 200 back in 1:56.92. She didn’t swim her best event, the 200 free, at this meet.
She had a lot of swims, adding exhibition performances in the 100 fly and 100 back as she seems to be exploring her full range outside of her specialty in the middle distance freestyles.
That was a bit of a theme for the USC women at the meet. Macky Hodges, a middle distance freestyler and backstroker, kicked off her sophomore season with a win in the 200 free in 1:45.93, which ranks her 7th in the NCAA so far this season. That’s the best dual meet time of her career, faster than the 1:46.08 she went at NCAAs last year, and within a second of her lifetime best of 1:45.06.
But she also swam best times in the 1650 free (16:37.72) to win and in the 100 breast (1:04.12) in an exhibition race.
Hawaii got their lone win of the women’s meet from Duke transfer Catherine Belyakov in the 100 breast, the event where Dobler would normally compete. She swam 1:02.17 to win that race – she also swam 4:17.97 for a new personal best and 2nd place in the 400 IM.
USC has a very slow start to their season, with only two dual meets before their mid-season invite. They’ll race next against their former Pac-12 foes Arizona on November 8th. Hawaii will race again in two weeks in a two-day dual against Grand Canyon at home.
