The University of Virginia men’s swimming program has received a historic financial gift that should help buoy the team as they prepare to begin a new era this fall.
The Virginia Athletics Foundation (VAF) and Virginia Athletics announced the men’s team has received a $2.2 million anonymous commitment, the largest single commitment in program history, and with the university matching funds, the school says the commitment represents $2.7 million in total fundraising impact.
The commitment will support scholarships for the UVA male swimmers, and it will also go towards recruitment, enhancing “the program’s ability to recruit and retain top-tier student-athletes by strengthening scholarship resources.”
“We are very grateful for this extraordinary gift,” said UVA Director of Athletics Carla Williams. “The incredible generosity of this commitment will have an immediate and long-lasting impact for UVA men’s swimming which in turn benefits our entire athletics program. It’s also a powerful endorsement of the trajectory of men’s swimming at the University of Virginia.”
While the University of Virginia women have become one of the most dominant swim teams in NCAA history over the last five years, winning six consecutive ACC titles and five straight national championships while producing numerous Olympic medalists, the men’s team has lagged behind.
The Cavalier men placed 8th at the 2025 ACC Championships and only managed to score 14 points at the 2025 NCAA Championships, placing 32nd. Both finishes were the program’s lowest since 2015 (acknowledging that Cal and Stanford joined the ACC in 2024-25 and went 1-2 at the conference championships).
However, optimism is abound for the Cavaliers in 2025-26 as they’ve got an absolutely stacked recruiting class led by Olympic medalist Thomas Heilman and world junior champion Maximus Williamson.
“This gift couldn’t come at a more pivotal time,” head coach Todd DeSorbo said. “We’re bringing in what I believe is the best recruiting class in the country, and maybe one of the best in NCAA history. This support will help us continue to build a team that competes for championships and represents the University at the highest level.”
DeSorbo said that UVA’s incoming class, which also includes Thomas Mercer, Blake Amlicke, Nathan Szobota and Josh Howat, is incredibly deep and that he “wouldn’t be surprised if all 12 (freshmen) made our ACC championship team as freshmen.”
“They’re that good,” he said.
The announcement comes just a few weeks after the three most decorated swimmers in Virginia women’s swimming history, Kate Douglass, Alex Walsh and Gretchen Walsh, announced they were creating a new scholarship for the women’s program called the Olympic Endowment Scholarship for Women’s Swimming Fund.
Virginia Athletics and the VAF have been consistently stating their commitment to securing the future of Olympic sports through scholarship at the school.
“This commitment reflects a shared belief in the power of scholarship support to shape lives and elevate our Olympic sport programs,” said Kevin Miller, Executive Director of the Virginia Athletics Foundation. “It marks a meaningful milestone, not just for men’s swimming, but for the future of Virginia athletics. We are deeply grateful for and inspired by the generosity of this donor.”
Can someone explain what happened to the UVA mens team? A couple of years ago they broke the American Mens 200 FR-Relay record with a young group. Matt King, Matt Brownstead and couple others. It seemed like a big step forward and then poof no story, no explanation just a question mark. I’d love to know what happened and why I should believe it won’t happen again
From Mr DeSorbo himself
“I think the biggest issue is we’ve had pretty bad luck with some of our personnel,” DeSorbo said. “We’ve had very, very high-level athletes not work out, and by not work out, I don’t mean they were here and they just didn’t get better, because all of our guys get better. Every one of our guys improves whether they’re our best guy down to our 30th guy. I think this year we were 90-some-percent lifetime best on the men’s side, which is absurd.”
For various reasons, though, Virginia has experienced significant attrition on the men’s side.
“Either injuries that have caused people to have to be done early,” DeSorbo said, “or behavioral issues that have caused… Read more »
The above is true. Some of the guys’ bodies have worn out, some of them have had significant mental health issues, some just burned out.
All of which is fair.
BUT identifying recruits who will succeed in the college environment is, also, part of the job. So while it is an explanation, the next step is figuring out how to get better at identifying those things on the recruiting trail. Are they perfectly identifiable? Absolutely not. No coach is ever perfect. But the coaches who hit at a higher rate usually have the better results as a team.
They’ve had three male 5th years not one. Nichols, Lamb, Tenpas.
Strange fact for him to emphasize when it’s not true, particularly with how all three have contributed a lot to the team.
Maybe he simply forgot about them? But it makes one wonder what else is not true…
Will Tempas transferred from Duke to work with Ken Ono. He was not on the ACC team. Noah Nichols decided in the fall of his 5th year that his heart wasn’t in it. August Lamb was the only real 5th year (and a great one)! Jack Aikins will be 5th year this year, after taking a red shirt.
Appreciate what you all said however I believe there is a story that is not being told.
The momentum created at the 2022 NCAA’s was perfect. American Record Relays on both the mens and women’s side. The men finally looked like contenders and not qualifiers.
Matt Brownstead – Sophmore (18.6/41.2) Flat
Matt King – Sophomore (18.4/41.2) Relay
Connor Boyle – Freshmen (18.7/41.6) Relay
August Lamb – Junior (18.5) Relay
Jack Aikins – Freshmen (41.8) Relay
How does that fall apart so quickly and quietly. Like people don’t even remember how promising it looked all of a sudden.
The women are unforgettable legends at UVA and the men are a mystery.
Something happened.
Money can fix a lot of things. The question will be, can it fix a culture?
Virginia now has plenty of money and they have plenty of talent coming in.
Now we will see if Desorbo can coach men! There are no variables left. This will be really interesting to watch.
Heard of NC State men’s team 2013-2017?
Lipstick on a pig?
Some might say similar about your lady dawgs!
Maybe some of that money could go towards having some divers but that’s just me
They should add their divers back. They are completely allowed to do it with no impact to roster limits with the House Settlement and now they have plenty of money to do it.
So anonymous?
12 freshman! Wow. Nice to be in the ACC versus the SEC, where total roster limit is 22!
SEC rules Men’s Swimming ACC should take a seat, watch and learn.
So are they finally going to post on instagram that they have a men’s team? Out of the last 36 posts, 4 have been about a male/men’s team. Most recent three were about this article.
Did they have any athletes competing at worlds?
Aikins rip
and heilman
Heilman RIP
To be fair, AJ Pouch posted on Aikins’ Instagram that Aikins lost 20 lbs with the gastro issues.
He was really good at Trials.
https://www.instagram.com/p/DM2vjgesRP-/?igsh=MXJvbXR3ZDZuZnIxYQ==
yeah sorry I meant rip with how bad he got sick, 52/1:54 is objectively really really impressive for someone who was 56/2:02 out of high school
I don’t care who you are, if you are losing twenty pounds due to stuff rapidly leaving your body, you’re not going to perform well at anything, let alone a major swim meet. It is impressive he was still able to swim.
I think Desorbo saw this comment
So what happens when the men’s team continues to struggle? I understand that a lot of firepower is coming soon, but it takes more than 3 guys to drag to a Top 5 finish, which I believe a lot of people think this endorsement/endowment carries. Or is 2mil not really enough to warrant that level of competitiveness?
It’s also a nice little deterrent from the Taylor news. Give that dirt a nice little sweep under the proverbial rug.
Todd will put it together. Never underestimate that guy. He coached plenty of high level men at NC State.
How long ago was that?
Oh and the doubters when Kate and the Walshes went to UVA. Check the SS record. Lol.
I’d suggest going back and looking through those articles again. Just looked at Kate and Alex’s commitment articles and I spot one commenter that could be considered as a “doubter”. The majority were positive
Fair, or there has been culling.
David Kings comments are telling of what you learn swimming under Gary Taylor. That is the culture he created and in time it will come out at UVA. No respect for Todd.
Comments where?
Here….UVA All-American: ‘The kids that quit … had horrible attitudes’
I’m here for your username