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Proudly donning the Red and Blue beneath the brightest lights.
Last week, sophomore breaststroke specialist Watson Nguyen and junior particular person medley specialist Peter Whittington competed on the NCAA Division I males’s swimming and diving championships. In their debuts on the nationwide stage, Nguyen completed twenty eighth and twenty sixth within the 100-yard and 200-yard breaststroke, respectively, whereas Whittington positioned twenty third and thirty first within the 200-yard breast and 400-yard particular person medley. The two are the primary Quakers not named Matt Fallon to swim on the championships since 2019. This yr’s NCAAs have been additionally the primary since 2016 to have a number of Quakers compete on the nationwide championships.
“[Peter and I] train very hard, and we’re at it every single day, and we’re going to do our best to have a better result next year and represent Penn way better next year,” Nguyen mentioned.
Nguyen certified for the championships by way of this yr’s new qualifying system, the place convention champions mechanically obtain a berth to the championships. He swept the breaststroke occasions on the 2026 Ivy League males’s swimming and diving championships to go to his first-ever look on the nationwide stage.
Whittington certified for the championships together with his speedy time of 1:52:10 at Ivies, which was runner-up to Nguyen. He was in a position to compete within the 400 particular person medley as properly. The two upheld Penn’s robust fame within the breaststroke occasions. Fallon represented the Quakers in each breaststroke occasions for the final 4 seasons at NCAAs.
Leading as much as the NCAAs, coaching isn’t the simplest because it happens with a smaller group throughout spring break, with the remainder of the Penn neighborhood off, and with a decent turnaround to taper and relaxation forward of the meet.
Nguyen, although, loved the intimate and individualized environment of the NCAA coaching group, which included now All-American swimmers senior distance freestyle specialists Anna Moehn and Sydney Bergstrom.
“It’s just great because I know we’re all putting in the work,” Nguyen mentioned, “Then you have Mike, who gives you all the attention, so he’s writing sets specifically for you.”
As for the meet itself, even with Nguyen’s expertise at large-scale meets like World Juniors or US Open, the NCAA championships had a novel environment with the crowds of followers for the powerhouse state applications.
“It’s the most elite people from the top, these top state schools like Texas, Cal, Florida, and there’s so much energy because all the parents are coming out and supporting their kids,” Nguyen mentioned. “This is certainly probably the most high-energy meet I’ve been to.
The high-energy and massive stage got here with numerous stress, and Nguyen contributed that to his less-than-ideal efficiency on the meet, ending in twenty eighth and twenty sixth within the 100-yard and 200-yard breaststroke with instances of 52.05 and 1:54.07, off of his greatest instances set lower than a month in the past at Ivies.
“We were racing some very good people,” Nguyen mentioned, “It’s a lot and a lot of pressure.”
However, simply competing at NCAAs for each Nguyen and Whittington is a superb accomplishment, as the 2 have been among the many first swimmers left off the qualifier listing final yr of their occasions. This yr, the 2 lastly make the lower.
Looking to the long run, the 2 will get again to coaching quickly for the lengthy course season. Nguyen is trying ahead to breaking down the movie of his races to research and make changes to be higher when subsequent season rolls round.
In the long term, the 2 are exploring paths to realize each swimmer’s dream: qualifying for the Olympics. Whittington is initially from Hong Kong and has represented China on the worldwide stage at Junior World Championships.
Growing up in Texas, Nguyen has achieved the identical with the U.S., however he only recently acquired twin citizenship between the U.S. and Vietnam to discover the alternatives of representing Vietnam in worldwide competitors, which might embrace the Olympics. The U.S. Olympic swim group is notoriously probably the most aggressive on this planet.
“I’m going to go to some meets in Vietnam and to see how I’m enjoy the experience and if I feel like that’s something I really want to continue in the future,” Nguyen mentioned. “I think about the swimming, but outside of that, it’s more of a question of ‘Am I being true to myself?’”
The Quaker duo wouldn’t be the primary Ivy League swimmers of current reminiscence to navigate that path. After deciding to swim professionally as a substitute of beginning his finance profession post-grad after a breakout senior season, a frequent competitor to Fallon and former Brown swimmer Jack Kelly is ready to represent Ireland in skilled competitors. 2022 Engineering graduate and former Penn swimmer Keanan Dols represented Jamaica on the 2021 Olympics within the 200-meter particular person medley.
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