Senior Matt Fallon will compete at Rutgers this weekend in preparation for the Olympic Trials.
Credit: Anna VazhaeparambilWhile many students have flocked to Europe or Asia for summer vacation, Penn swimming and diving is taking a road trip. Traveling to Rutgers University, the Quakers will be competing at the Scarlet Aquatics Memorial Day meet this weekend. A majority of the Penn athletes will be competing to achieve qualifying times for the upcoming United States Olympic Trials set to begin on June 15 in Indianapolis.
Some Penn swimmers have already qualified for the Trials, including senior individual medley specialist Kevin Keil in the 400-meter individual medley, junior backstroke and individual medley specialist Daniel Gallagher in the 200 backstroke, and, of course, junior breaststroker Matthew Fallon in the 100 and 200 breaststroke.
However, Fallon will also be part of the cohort at Rutgers this weekend to prepare for racing at Trials. For Fallon, everything has led up to these last few weeks before the Trials. The Warren, N.J. native has been the frontrunner for the U.S. Olympic Team since his senior international team debut last summer, where he took home bronze at the 2023 World Championships in the 200 breaststroke. Fallon has been looking promising all year since then — taking second at NCAAs and breaking U.S Open and Pro Swim Series records.
Some other successful athletes from this past season who will be competing this weekend are senior freestyler Anna Kalandadze and sophomore freestylers Anna Moehn and Sydney Bergstrom — all of whom are part of a dominant Quakers distance group. Kalandadze is coming off a storybook ending to her college swimming career, as she finished fourth in the 1650-yard freestyle at NCAA Championships and collected All-American honors for the first time. The Daily Pennsylvanian’s Women’s Senior Athlete of the Year will be competing in the 800-meter and 1500-meter freestyle. In the latter event, her personal best time is from her appearance at the World University Games last summer and is about 10 seconds off of the Olympic Trials cut.
Moehn is also coming off a spectacular end-of-season performance — making her NCAA debut in March. Moehn recently competed at the Atlantic Classic meet last weekend where she swam to personal best times in 400-meter, 800-meter, and 1500-meter freestyle events. This weekend, Moehn will be competing in both the 800 and 1500 freestyle, where she’s about seven seconds off of the Olympic Trials cuts in both events.
Bergstrom also had a great championship season, finishing behind Kalandadze and Moehn in the mile at Ivies and taking first at ECAC Championships in the 500-yard, and 1650-yard free events. She also will be competing in the 800-meter and 1500-meter free this weekend with Kalandadze and Moehn.
Fellow sophomore backstroker James Curreri and freshman backstroke/freestyle/individual medley specialist Katya Eruslanova will also be trying to qualify for Trials this weekend. Curreri is coming off of a breakout season where he specialized in distance events for the first time and took home bronze in the 500-yard and 1000-yard free at the Ivy League Championships. The Kinnelon, N.J. native has a diverse lineup this weekend — racing in the 800-meter free, 200-meter back, 1500-meter free, 400-meter free, and 100-meter back. This weekend’s meet is sort of a homecoming for Curreri and Fallon, who, as young N.J. club swimmers, grew up racing at Rutgers for club swim meets.
Eruslanova is also coming off a breakout year where she broke the 200-yard individual medley program record twice — both at the mid-season meet and at Ivies. This weekend, the versatile freshman will race the 200-meter back, 200-meter individual medley, and 400-meter individual medley.
While many eyes will be on Fallon in his final meet before the elusive Trials, the Penn community has a lot of other exciting storylines to follow and promising athletes to rally behind this weekend.
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