Indiana Men to Scare Favorites This Season Thanks to Veterans and Transfers
The Indiana Hoosiers have not finished as a top-two team at the NCAA Men’s Championships since 1975, a quarter-century before head coach Ray Looze arrived in Bloomington. But Indiana has asserted its status as a powerhouse program in recent years, even without garnering the attention of rivals such as Cal, Texas, Arizona State, Florida or even NC State. Looze’s men’s teams have finished in the top-five at the national meet five times since 2018, with the only exception a sixth-place finish in 2021. Last year, Indiana’s 376 points left the team in fourth place, just two behind the third-place Gators.
Indiana enters the 2024-25 season with its longtime top swimmer, Brendan Burns, having finally exhausted his eligibility. Burns won three individual NCAA titles in his career, topping the 200 butterfly in 2022 and then winning the 100 backstroke each of the next two years, and he annually attempted the grueling 200 back-200 fly double on the final day of the national meet.
But aside from Burns and Max Reich, who opted not to swim his fifth year, Indiana returns every scoring swimmer from last year’s NCAA Championships as well as three A-final divers while adding four transfers poised to make an enormous scoring impact.
Rafael Miroslaw (right) — Photo Courtesy: Emily Cameron
Let’s run down the returners first: breaststroker Josh Matheny represented the United States the 200-meter race at the Paris Olympics and qualified for the final. Rafael Miroslaw (Germany) qualified for the 200 freestyle semis at the Olympics while Tomer Frankel (Israel) just missed out on a second swim in the 100 butterfly. Both were multi-event NCAA scorers and key relay players last season. Jassen Yep, Luke Barr and Finn Brooks also return after scoring evening swims at last year’s national meet.
As for the returning divers, Carson Tyler won both 3-meter and platform at last year’s NCAA Championships while taking third on 1-meter. Tyler later became the first American man to qualify for the Olympics on both 3-meter and platform, and he ended up finishing fourth in the 3-meter event in Paris. Additionally, Quentin Henninger was second on both springboard events and seventh on platform. Maxwell Weinrich placed second on platform and 15th on 3-meter. Indiana always excels on the boards, but 121 returning points is far behind the usual standard.
Next, there are the high-profile transfers, each with NCAA A-final and/or Olympic experience under their belt prior to their arrival in Bloomington. Matt King might be the best suited to a major role on the college level; King has represented the U.S. in the 400 free relay at major international competitions the last two years, helping the team win gold in Paris as a prelims swimmer, and now he will team with Miroslaw and Frankel in Indiana’s underrated freestyle relays while becoming the obvious anchor for the medley squads.
Two swimmers made the move to Indiana from Arizona State, Owen McDonald and Zalan Sarkany. McDonald qualified for three individual A-finals at last year’s NCAAs, taking second in the 200 IM, third in the 200 back and sixth in the 100 back, while Sarkany fell to 12th in the 500 free despite entering as the top seed but rebounded by cruising to a national title in the 1650 free.
And don’t forget about Brian Benzing, the top returning finisher in the 100 breast following the departure of Cal’s Liam Bell. Benzing, who competed for Towson as an undergraduate, chose to spend his graduate year teaming up with Matheny and Yep to create one of the nation’s most dangerous breaststroke trios.
Perhaps you have noticed one major hole in this Indiana roster: who is going to step into Burns’ shoes and handle the backstroke leg of medley relays that will be close to title contention? Enter Miroslav Knedla, a teenager from Czechia who placed 12th in the 100-meter back semis in Paris and is now a freshman on the Indiana roster.
The talent in men’s college swimming is as present as ever, with Cal bringing back versatile swimmers who have led national-title runs, Bob Bowman assembling a deep squad in his first year at Texas and Florida still stocked with sprint depth. But the favorites will not forget about Indiana, with Looze bringing arguably his most talented and capable team yet into this season.