No pool. No problem.
Even with Sheerr Pool under construction, Penn men’s swimming and diving is back and better than ever with their season opening meet at Columbia this Friday. Like women's, Penn men’s swimming and diving is practicing at the West Philadelphia YMCA and the Drexel pool due to ongoing yearlong construction on Sheerr Pool at Pottruck Health and Fitness Center. Both teams only have one home meet at the Drexel pool in November, which will be against Princeton and Cornell.
The season will undoubtedly be headlined by senior breaststroker and captain Matt Fallon in his swan-song season after a remarkable postseason.
Fallon’s summer between seasons has been busy to say the least. In June, the Warren, N.J. native qualified for an Olympic berth in American-record-breaking fashion in the 200-meter breaststroke — becoming the first Penn swimmer in history to make Team USA.
At the 2024 Paris Olympics, Fallon qualified for the semifinals in the 200 breaststroke but fell a heartbreaking 0.07 seconds short of making the final due to illness on race day. Leading up to the race, Fallon was a serious medal contender. Ultimately, the gold went to French superstar Leon Marchand, who Fallon was runner-up to in the 200-yard breastsroke at this past NCAA Championships. With Marchand’s departure from the NCAA to go pro, Fallon returns as the top 200yd breaststroker in the NCAA, which will be a storyline to watch come championship season.
With the losses of breaststrokers Matthew LeBlanc and Jason Schreiber to graduation, Fallon will lead a new, young breaststroke group this season that will be integral to maintaining (or even improving) the Red and Blue’s strong 6-2 overall and 5-2 conference records from the regular season last year — a season highlighted by a historic win against Harvard.
The newbie breaststroke group includes freshmen breaststroker Watson Nguyen, breaststroke/individual medley specialist Colin Zhang, and butterfly/breaststroke/individual medley specialist Jeffrey Hou. Nguyen and Zhang have eerily similar times in the 100yd breaststroke at around 53.3 seconds, with Hou a touch faster at a 53.2 best time. It took a time of 54.74 seconds to make the A final of the Ivy League Championships last year.
Nguyen and Zhang also have strong 200yd breaststroke best times that would’ve also made the A finals of Ivys last year. Sophomore individual medley specialist Peter Whittington will also be one to watch after finishing seventh in the 200yd breaststroke at his Ivys debut last year. It will be exciting to see how successful this group will be in the regular and championship seasons.
Other top returners include junior backstroker James Curreri and senior backstroke/individual medley specialist Daniel Gallagher. Curreri had a breakout season last year in the distance free events after only starting to focus on the 500yd and 1000yd freestyle after the mid-season meet. At Ivys, the Kinnelon, N.J. native collected a bronze medal in both of those events, and this year Curreri is the top returner in the Ivy League in the 1000yd free.
Gallagher is coming off a strong appearance in the 200m backstroke at the Olympic Trials this past summer. In his final season with the Red and Blue, the Suwanee, Ga. native is looking to end his collegiate career on a high note. He is hoping to reach similar heights to his freshman season, which culminated in a silver medal finish in the 200yd backstroke at Ivys. Gallagher finished seventh in the event at Ivys last year, improving his ninth-place finish the year before.
On the diving side, 2024 graduate Jack Williams, who almost qualified for NCAAs in his junior year, is a major loss for the program. Freshman diver Victor Dang joins senior diver Cody Hopkins to headline the diving season. Hopkins is coming off a great season highlighted by a new program record in the three-meter dive in a regular season meet against West Chester.
Despite the temporary loss of their home pool, Penn men's swimming and diving is looking strong with a lot of rookie and veteran talent, and the upcoming championship season will be nothing short of exciting for the Penn community with the potential for an NCAA individual title from Fallon.
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