Worlds Medalists Condorelli, Wasick Among Additions To Ozzie Quevedo’s Group At SMU

A burgeoning pro group is starting to develop at Southern Methodist University, as some established names have joined SMU women’s head coach Ozzie Quevedo in Dallas.

Two-time Olympian Santo Condorelli has been training with Quevedo since mid-June, SwimSwam has learned, having made the move from the Texas Ford Aquatics pro group led by Coley Stickels, where he landed earlier this year.

Marina Spadoni, a freestyle sprinter who recently represented El Salvador at the Pan American Games, also joined Quevedo in mid-June from the Texas Ford group.

In October, the SMU group got another significant addition in Polish star Kasia Wasick, who won silver in the women’s 50 free at the 2022 World Championships and made trips to the podium in the event in consecutive years at the 2021 (bronze) and 2022 (silver) Short Course Worlds in the 50 free.

Wasick previously trained out of UNLV with Team Rebel Aquatics, where she was serving as a volunteer assistant coach.

The 31-year-old recently put up a blistering time of 24.18 in the women’s 50 free (LCM), just shy of the 24.11 Polish Record she set at the 2022 World Championships.

For Condorelli, news of his move to SMU is particularly notable given the performance he had over the weekend at the U.S. Open, having accomplished his stated goal of breaking 22 seconds in the 50 free.

The 28-year-old placed fourth in the 50 free in a time of 21.99, just the third time in his career he’s been sub-22, having done so twice at the 2016 Olympics in Rio (21.83 best time), where he finished 12th while representing Canada.

Condorelli also went 48.88 in the 100 free and 51.90 in the 100 fly at the U.S. Open, both his fastest since 2021.

Condorelli, who also represented Italy at the Tokyo Olympics but is now eyeing a spot on the U.S. team in Paris, said “now we work for the 100/200” in his Instagram post—he only has two 200 free swims on record in the last decade, and his best time stands at 1:51.52 from 2013.

It would be a surprise to see him in the hunt for a spot on the American 800 free relay at the 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials, but he’s clearly rounding into the type of form that tells us he’ll be a player in the 50 and 100 free in Indianapolis.

Condorelli was suspended 18 months for a whereabouts failure in October 2022, but it was lifted by World Aquatics due to what was reportedly a clerical error.

Another big-time pro training out of SMU is multi-time world champion Nic Fink, who followed wife Melanie Margalis Fink to Dallas after she was named assistant coach with the women’s team in the summer. Unlike the others, Fink is training with the SMU men’s team under coach Greg Rhodenbaugh.

Quevedo was named the head coach of the SMU women’s team this past April after spending four seasons as an associate head coach at Alabama, having also served as an interim head coach for part of the 2020-21 season.