A number of Louisville swimmers are absent from this week’s Purdue Invite due to COVID-19 contact tracing protocols, a spokesperson for the program told SwimSwam on Friday.
The decision to withhold the athletes was out of “an abundance of caution,” the spokesperson said.
While the school didn’t specify names of athletes who were absent in the protocol, among the big names missing for the Cardinals from this week’s meet include Nick Albiero, the son of Louisville head coach Arthur Albiero and defending NCAA Champion in the 200 fly.
Other swimmers absent were 2021 NCAA qualifiers Ilia Sibirtsev and Haridi Sameh, the latter of whom was the anchor of the NCAA title-winning 200 medley relay last season. Also absent is freshman Murilo Sartori, a Brazilian who was the 2021 South American Champion in the 400 free.
After one day of competition at the Purdue Invite, the Louisville men, even without those four swimmers, rank 2nd, 17 points behind the hosts Purdue.
A number of big-name swimmers have been absent from mid-season invites with health-related issues, including Georgia’s Jake Magahey and Luca Urlando (though Urlando was cleared to compete on day 2 of the Georgia Tech Invite), and Virginia’s Gretchen Walsh.
In addition to COVID-19, a number of college campuses have been hit hard by flu outbreaks this fall as well.
Albiero, Cummings, Lowe, Sameh, Sibirtsev, Sofianidis, and Worrel; all NCAA swimmers last year. Also Sartori, Kreiley, and Taylor missing from the men’s roster on meet mobile.
For the women Dunn, Friesen, Herkle, McCormick, and Regenauer are not in meet mobile.