While this year’s U.S. Open is being very lightly attended by the top tier of American swimmers, it is providing an important utility for at least one collegiate program: the Notre Dame men, who have precious-few high-level racing opportunities with the suspension of their program for at least this season.
This morning in Greensboro, several Notre Dame freshmen posted best times. Perhaps the most impressive time drop was Pennsylvania native Shane Eckler in the 50 freestyle. Eckler smashed the 20 second barrier, going from 20.07 his senior year of high school to 19.58 this morning. He’s coming back seeded third tonight.
Sean Atkinson finished 4th in the 500 freestyle this morning, clocking 4:22.90 to best his 4:24.79 personal best from NCSA Champs this spring. His classmate, Patrick Branon, is seeded 6th tonight. Branon posted a two second drop from his best time as a high schooler, from 4:25.01 down to 4:23.00.
This is just the second opportunity the Notre Dame freshmen have had to compete since starting college. At the start of November, they also competed at Concord Swimming’s club invitational in Elkhart, Indiana.
In August, the team was suspended for at least a year after an independent law firm found that most team members were engaged in gambling throughout the previous season. One gambling topic was an over/under on how many women would cry after their races.
The performance at the U.S. Open thus far shows that the loss of the collegiate season has not halted the Irish momentum off a historic season for the program. Notre Dame is currently in their third season under head coach Chris Lindauer. At the beginning of 2024, Notre Dame finished a record-high 2nd at the ACC championships and 10th at the NCAA championships. Former Notre Dame swimmer Chris Giuliano went on to qualify for the Olympics in three individual events and left Paris with a gold and a silver medal. Giuliano transferred to Texas following Notre Dame’s suspension.
Today’s results suggest that the swimming performance momentum under Lindauer has not halted with the suspension. It could also mark the first step in a long road to reputation recovery in the recruiting process.
Eckler is set to race the 50 free final tonight beside Olympian Drew Kibler. He’s also scheduled to swim the 100 fly and 100 free later in the meet. Atkinson and Branon will both swim the 500/200 free combo across the next two days. On the final day of competition, Atkinson is set to swim the mile while Branon will swim the 200 fly.
I took Notre Dame men on the over-and-under! Nice work, fellas.
Go Irish!☘️
Good for them and screw the lazy and self-serving administrators that meted out a blanket punishment without any transparency.
I’m Him
I did not bet on the freshman doing this well.