2020 Tokyo Olympian Jake Mitchell has entered the NCAA Transfer Portal. Mitchell just completed his sophomore year with the Michigan Wolverines after competing at the 2022 Men’s NCAA Championships.
Mitchell had several underwhelming performances at NCAA’s, finishing 46th in the 500 free (4:21.24), 36th in the 400 IM (3:52.73), and split 1:34.36 on Michigan’s 14th-place 800 free relay. These times were significantly off from his lifetime bests that were achieved just under a month earlier at the 2022 Big 10 Championships.
There, Mitchell was 4:12.88 in the 500 and 3:41.39 in the 400 IM. If Mitchell would’ve held his seed times at NCAA’s, he would’ve qualified for the B-Final in the 500 and would’ve just missed out on the 400 IM. It has been that Mitchell is recovering from a case of mononucleosis that impacted his performances.
The Wolverine Men finished 22nd overall at the 2022 NCAA Championships, exactly 10 spots lower than they did in 2021.
Prior to Michigan, Mitchell swam with Carmel Swim Club in Indiana. Mitchell opted to stay home and train with his club team leading up to the Olympic Trials, where he ended up making the team in a solo, second-chance time trial. In his first individual Olympic final, Mitchell placed 8th overall (3:45.39), just .01 off his personal best that was set in prelims (3:45.38).
This is the 2nd 2020 Olympian that Michigan has lost this week, as Maggie MacNeil had announced she’d be using her last year of NCAA eligibility at Cal. MacNeil, who competed for 4 seasons with the Michigan Women’s Team, will also be pursuing her Master’s Degree while competing for the Golden Bears. MacNeil entered the transfer portal prior to the season, saying at the time that she was keeping her options open.
In addition to the two Olympic Stars, the Michigan Men have lost two key conference point-scorers and NCAA qualifiers.
Wyatt Davis, who also trained at Carmel with Mitchell, left Michigan mid-semester and returned home to focus on his mental health. Davis is training at Carmel, but most recently stated that he plans to return to Michigan for the fall. Michigan has also lost Danny Berlitz, who recently transferred to West Virginia. Berlitz was a two-time NCAA qualifier with Michigan, and has 3 years of NCAA eligibility left. All-American River Wright, who was not on Michigan’s NCAA Championship team this season, also recently entered the transfer portal, and All-American Will Chan also entered the portal prior to this season to explore a potential 5th year transfer.
Big 10 made a major mistake. 24 down to 18 instantly and right after CoVid. Big 10 must hate swim and dive.
I think this breaks the record for comments on a transfer portal athlete.
well done?
not even close
Who’s #1 and do we have a volunteer willing to track that?
Well there’s Shaine Casas for one: https://swimswam.com/3-time-ncaa-champion-shaine-casas-will-transfer-out-of-texas-am/
Michigan “should” be a perennial top 10 team at NCAAs, if not regularly top 5. To see how far they’ve fallen is very disappointing. There is no reason why Michigan can’t be the Midwest version of Cal. As an outsider, I have no idea what’s happened there, but clearly something needs to change.
edit: disregard the double comment
It seems pretty clear what’s happening…you don’t see this number of high level transfers in this short of a time period unless people are losing faith in the leadership
Michigan has some pretty good commits coming in I’m not too worried
Until they decommit seeing this hot mess
I would guess they all signed NLIs. Not going to get out at that point.
anyone who fancies themselves a distance swimmer would be crazy not to transfer or commit to Florida.
Or NC State. They were runner up & 3rd for the men. In the mile.
Bernardino is always going to have his distance group ready to go.
Maggie Macneil also announcing she is leaving. Going to Cal.
Welcome to last week, and this is in the article as well.
Maggie was planning to transfer since olympic season tho. Especially with Rick no longer in Michigan. I don’t think it has something to do with whatever current situation in Michigan
Florida no doubt
Not sure why you are getting downvoted, this is the most logical destination. Maybe Texas, but Florida has Nesty, and a solid middle distance to distance group that no doubt would push him…probably also change of scenery freshens up the feeling of training hard…that, and losing repeats to Ledecky
Wishing Jake the best during this difficult transition. It is not easy going through the process of a transfer but when you know, you know. Jake has a history of being a very hardworking trainer at Carmel that resulted in results that had him consistently improving. Chris Plumb and Jake were responsible for him making the Olympics in my opinion. He knows what he needs and I’m sure when he finds it, he will thrive once again.