NCAA Finalist David Schlicht Taking Olympic Redshirt Season For Arizona

Arizona sophomore David Schlicht will sit out this NCAA season, preparing for Australia’s Olympic Trials, the school confirmed this week.

Schlicht was the Wildcats’ top scorer at 2019 NCAAs, putting up 22 points across three events. He finished 6th in the 400 IM, 10th in the 200 breast and 15th in the 200 IM, and with seniors factored out, he projected to score upwards of 40 points individually in 2020.

But Schlicht hasn’t competed for Arizona this season and won’t – he competed in Australia at the Australian Short Course Championships back in October. The 20-year-old has previously represented Australia at Short Course Worlds. In long course, he finished last season ranked 14th among Australians in the 400 IM (4:27.49) and and 200 IM (2:04.57), though his career-bests would rank quite a bit higher.

Schlicht’s Top Times (LCM & SCY)

• 200m IM: 2:02.76
• 400m IM: 4:22.09
• 200m breast: 2:15.54
• 200y IM: 1:42.38
• 400y IM: 3:40.14
• 200y breast: 1:52.33

Arizona has confirmed that Schlicht is taking an Olympic redshirt season, and will return to the University of Arizona program for the 2020-2021 season. Despite the loss of their star IMer, the Arizona men just keep cruising. They currently rank #5 nationally in our Swimulator despite not having any swims from Schlicht. The Wildcats have three other returning scorers (Brooks Fail, Jorge Iga, Sam Iida) and currently have seven individuals projected in scoring range in the Swimulator.

We add Schlicht to our list of Olympic year redshirts so far:

• Taylor Ruck, Stanford (Canada)
• Olivia Carter, Georgia (USA)
• Ida Hulkko, Florida State (Finland)
• Faith Knelson, Arizona (Canada)
• Mackenzie Padington, Minnesota (Canada)
• Sarah Bacon, Minnesota (USA)
• Kristen Hayden, Minnesota (USA)
• Mabel Zavaros, Florida (Canada)
• Federica Greco, Rutgers (Italy)
• Dean Farris, Harvard (USA)
• Javier Acevedo, Georgia (Canada)
• Giovanni Izzo, NC State (Italy)
• Jarod Arroyo, Arizona State (Puerto Rico)
• Ruslan Gaziev, Ohio State (Canada)
• Mario Koenigsperger, USC (New Zealand)
• Grant House, Arizona State (USA)
• Michael Brinegar, Indiana (USA)
• Andrew Capobianco, Indiana (USA)
• Brandon Loschiavo, Purdue (USA)
• Raphael Marcoux, Harvard (Canada)
• True Sweetser, Stanford (USA)