May Bob Bowman and College of Texas Propel U.S. Males in Future Years?
The spotlight of an Olympic swimming competitors the place little or no went proper for the U.S. males got here on the ultimate day, when Bobby Finke received gold within the males’s 1500 freestyle in world-record time. Finke helped the crew keep away from being fully shut out of profitable particular person gold, and it was solely the sixth particular person medal the lads’s crew received all week. In any other case, the 9 days of swimming had been crammed loads of disappointments.
Veterans Nic Fink and Ryan Murphy every received particular person medals, with Fink taking silver within the 100 breaststroke and Murphy bronze within the 100 backstroke, however Murphy missed out on the 200 again remaining whereas fellow three-time Olympian Caeleb Dressel couldn’t replicate his occasions from the U.S. Olympic Trials, not to mention his greatest occasions ever. Carson Foster took bronze within the 400 IM however simply missed a medal within the 200 IM. Many American male swimmers at present in school, together with Jack Alexy, Matt Fallon and Chris Guiliano, swam slower than they did at Olympic Trials. If that they had replicated their Trials ends in Paris, they’d have been fast sufficient to seize particular person medals.
Actually, present American collegiate males accounted for only one particular person medal, when Luke Hobson claimed bronze within the 200 free, virtually stealing gold in an occasion during which he had no enterprise contending with the likes of David Popovici or Matt Richards. However Hobson ended up with bronze in 1:44.79, turning into the fourth-fastest American ever within the course of.
Luke Hobson — Photograph Courtesy: Peter H. Bick
Now, Hobson is again competing for the College of Texas, a senior remaining with this system following the retirement of legendary coach Eddie Reese and the hiring of Bob Bowman to steer this system. Bowman could be greatest recognized for guiding Michael Phelps in his greatest-of-all-time profession, however maybe the Paris Olympics had been his most profitable: swimmers he had coached accounted for 11 particular person medals, though solely 4 of these had been American medals.
Bowman’s athletes included Leon Marchand, who received 4 particular person golds in a legendary efficiency in his house nation, and Hubert Kos, who claimed gold within the 200 backstroke. Additionally on the lads’s facet, Bowman had performed a key position in teaching Ilya Kharun, the bronze medalist in each butterfly races, previous to departing Arizona State following the 2024 collegiate season. The one American medals from Bowman-trained swimmers had been received by girls, with Regan Smith taking three particular person silvers and Paige Madden profitable bronze within the 800 free.
Within the new quadrennium, may Bowman plus Texas be the method for creating a brand new technology of medal-contending U.S. males? With Hobson and Foster, Texas was this system that produced the one two U.S. males’s particular person medals by swimmers youthful than 24, and Bowman has solely bolstered his Corridor-of-Fame résumé in recent times, notably along with his work turning Marchand and Kos into worldwide stars.
Through the first portion of this faculty season, we have now already seen indicators of swimmers teeming with potential taking large steps underneath Bowman and the Longhorns, notably within the Texas-Indiana twin meet held Friday in Austin.
Rex Maurer — Photograph Courtesy: Peter H. Bick
As Texas held its “marquee” meet with a lightweight present, pre-race introductions and a packed crowd, Hobson took the win within the 200-yard free in 1:31.86, about three seconds shy of the all-time report within the occasion he posted final 12 months. However not distant was Rex Maurer, a sophomore switch from Stanford, who clocked 1:32.13 to crush his earlier greatest time of 1:33.54 from his highschool days. In a while, Maurer received the five hundred free in 4:11.20, once more beating his greatest time that dated again to highschool, and within the morning session, he received the 400 IM in 3:40.90.
Maurer completed within the top-11 in three completely different occasions at Olympic Trials however didn’t recover from the hump into any particular person finals. Now, we’re seeing hints of Maurer taking steps towards nationwide rivalry, similar to Hobson did throughout his first 12 months at Texas.
In the meantime, the top-two returning sophomores on the Texas crew had been each spectacular in opposition to the Hoosiers. Will Modglin, a Nationwide Excessive College Swimmer of the 12 months throughout his days in Zionsville, Ind., had by far his greatest lengthy course season in 2024 as he made finals within the 100 again and 200 IM at Olympic Trials. Towards Indiana, Modglin grew to become the primary swimmer to interrupt 45 within the 100-yard again this faculty season.
Nate Germonprez, a semifinalist within the 200 IM at Trials, swam the nation’s second-fastest time within the 100 breast, beating out the Hoosiers’ deep breaststroke group with a time of 51.60. Germonprez hardly raced breaststroke throughout his freshman season, dealing with butterfly legs on the Longhorns’ high medley relays as an alternative, however his progress within the stroke bears watching within the coming months.
Twin-meet swims are a great distance from the NCAA Championships, not to mention lengthy course season, however we have now to concentrate given the current pattern of Bowman taking swimmers with stable accomplishments and turning them into stars in each quick course and lengthy course. The U.S. wants that, for causes that transcend the struggles in Paris: many of the largest males’s school stars of the previous few years symbolize international international locations whereas a number of high People have been unable to translate their success within the large pool.
Given the status of the College of Texas and its swimming program plus his personal teaching success in recent times, Bowman has a greater probability of attracting blue-chip American expertise to Austin. The early returns of his work with Maurer, Modglin and Germonprez convey some much-needed optimism for the still-reeling American males.
