HALL OF FAME CLASS XIV: Chris Swanson W’16

Men’s Swimming and Diving | September 17, 2026

Celebrate all the Class XIV on the Penn Athletics Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony and Dinner on Friday, September 25. Tickets are nonetheless accessible.  to register and be taught extra. 

One of probably the most adorned swimmers in program historical past, he grew to become this system’s first NCAA champion when he captured the 1,650-yard freestyle title in 2016. A four-time NCAA qualifier and four-time All-American, he received a program-record 9 particular person Ivy League championships and have become the primary swimmer at school historical past to earn the Harold Ulen Award for many profession factors collected on the Ivy Championships. He additionally received the Phil Moriarty High Point of the Meet Award 3 times, an accomplishment unmatched in program historical past. One of solely two swimmers in Ivy League historical past to win 4 profession titles within the 1,650 freestyle, he graduated holding Penn and Ivy Championship information within the 500, 1,000, and 1,650 freestyle occasions. Following commencement, competed on the U.S. Olympic Trials, ending twelfth within the 1,500 meter freestyle in 2016. 

No athlete has loved extra particular person success within the 120-plus 12 months historical past of the boys’s swimming and diving program at Penn than Chris Swanson W’16.

He’s the one NCAA champion in program historical past and has received extra Ivy League titles (9) than another swimmer Penn has produced, successful the 1,650-yard freestyle 4 occasions, the five hundred free 3 times and the 1,000 free twice. He nonetheless holds this system information in all three occasions. Swanson additionally was a three-time honorable point out All-American and a three-time recipient of the Phil Moriarty High Point Scorer of the Meet Award on the Ivy League Championships.

That spectacular resume landed the 2016 Wharton School graduate a spot within the Penn Athletics Hall of Fame Class XIV.

Yet in case you ask him what his fondest recollections of Penn are he’ll say it is the folks he met and the friendships he made in his 4 years in West Philadelphia. 

“I met my wife (Laine C’17) at Penn,” stated Swanson, who was married earlier this 12 months. “My best man (Bobby Francis W’16) was a teammate of mine. 

“There’s a bunch of six or seven of us that go on a visit collectively yearly to be sure that we’re staying in touch. I’ve been to 5 – 6 weddings for folks on the group and extra to come back. I’ve met the kids of teammates.

“The biggest thing for me is the quality of the people I met at Penn, the people I knew then and the ones that I have stayed in touch with since I left. It’s nice that when we do see each other we pick up right where we left off.

“If I can specific one factor to anybody contemplating swimming at Penn, it would be that the coaching and competitors matter, however that is not the true takeaway,” Swanson said. “It’s the folks you meet and grind via it with each day. Once you allow faculty, these bonds are uncommon. The friendships you type on a group — via all these coaching hours collectively — these final a lifetime.”

Swanson got here to Penn from Jesuit High School in Tampa, the place he was a two-time winner of the Henry Hicks Memorial Award because the excellent male swimmer in Hillsborough County. The Tigers received 4 straight district titles and three consecutive area championships throughout Swanson’s time there beneath legendary coach Bill Shaffer.

He was drawn to Penn by its educational repute and with the assistance of future Quaker teammate Eric Vanden Noort W’15, whom Swanson met at a swimming camp on the Bolles School in Jacksonville. Vanden Noort was a 12 months forward of Swanson and had already dedicated to Penn.

“He was my host when I went on my recruiting visit,” Swanson stated of Vanden Noort. “I really liked the team and I really liked the coach, Mike Schnur C’88. I really fell in love with it.

“I wasn’t quick sufficient out of highschool for a lot of prime swimming packages. Florida was close by however out of attain. Harvard and Princeton have been the Ivy powers on the time, means forward of the place I used to be. Mike Schnur noticed potential in me when others did not, and he took an opportunity on me.”

Schnur, in his 18th season because the Lou and Rene Kozloff Head Swimming Coach at Penn, noticed Swanson on the junior nationals and what he noticed was a fierce competitor who simply wanted just a little sharpening. 

“He would go out really, really fast and then fall apart at the end,” Schnur stated. “Once I talked to him about how he educated when he was youthful, I knew why he fell aside on the finish so I knew we may change that, have him prepare so much tougher and he would be capable to end races. 

“His talent was very obvious. You saw how he rode in the water. I just loved how he attacked his races and wasn’t afraid to fall apart at the end. We knew we could fix that. The hard part is fixing someone to have the courage to swim that way. Once we taught Chris how to pace races, he became really great.”

Swanson’s capability to tempo himself proved important the night time he received the nationwide championship within the 1,650-yard freestyle as a senior when he pulled off an unimaginable comeback to etch his identify in Penn historical past. Every one in every of his 50-yard splits have been between 26.31 and 26.73 seconds till the ultimate 100 yards when he went 26.07 and 24.38 to erase a 4.16-second deficit down the stretch and contact the wall simply forward of South Carolina’s Ahmed Mahmoud. 

“It was a bit of a weird race,” Swanson stated. “You section it off into components, the first 500, the second 500, the third 600 and then the last 50. 

“The first 500 was dominated by a man named Clark Smith, from Texas, who ended up being a gold medal successful Olympian. He took it out blazing quick then fell off on the 500 mark. Then you had a Michigan man named P.J. Ransford, who took it over from there and led for the following 500. Eventually, he fell off from there. And then there was Mahmoud from South Carolina. He took cost for the following 600 earlier than he began to fade away.

“Throughout all of that I was just trying to maintain pace, see who was around me, swim my own race. Don’t do anything out of the ordinary. At the 150 mark I decided to take it to another gear and see what could happen. With about 50 to go I thought I saw Mahmoud close to me but I really didn’t know. I just put my head down and sprinted as fast as I could and touched him out by a tenth. I was surprised. I didn’t think I would catch up to him but it was a combination of (two things). I had the stamina at the end and fortunately he probably made his move slightly too early. That worked out to my benefit.”

Swanson received by .12 seconds. He crossed the end line in 14:31.56, a private greatest and shattered the varsity document within the occasion by practically 9 seconds. The earlier mark was 14:40.18. He was the primary Ivy League swimmer to win a nationwide championship since 1990. 

Mahmoud was second in 14:31.66.

“It was a pretty special last 30 seconds,” Schnur stated. “At no point did I think he was going to win until the last two laps.”

For all of his particular person success, although, Swanson was most happy with what the group achieved throughout his profession. Princeton and Harvard have been the highest two groups within the Ivy League when Swanson was at Penn and nonetheless are. Swanson and his teammates set a modest purpose of ending within the prime three within the league, one thing Penn had not accomplished on the convention championship meet since 1972. The Quakers positioned third twice, when Swanson was a sophomore and as a senior.

“He’s one of the guys that I’ve coached in my life that he never cared about himself personally,” Schnur stated. “He cared about how he could help the other guys. Chris was never a me, me guy. He was always a we, we guy. It was the points he scored for the team, not the individual accomplishments that he cared about. How can I contribute to Penn’s success? That was his philosophy and evident in every practice.”

And now, in his first 12 months of eligibility, Swanson is the sixth member of the swimming program to be inducted into the Penn Athletics Hall of Fame.

“It’s recognition of all the hard work that I put in when I started swimming competitively at eight or nine years old and all through college,” Swanson stated. “It’s also recognition for the support my parents (Craig and Mary Star) gave me, whether it was driving me to practice at 5:30 in the morning or sacrificing their weekends to take me to meets all throughout the state of Florida and all the friends who spent time training with me when they didn’t have to be there. It’s a culmination of all that so it’s an honor to be going in.”