‘Revitalized’ Van Mathias Plays Big Role in Indiana’s Big Ten Title

Van Mathias; Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

‘Revitalized’ Van Mathias Plays Big Role in Indiana’s Big Ten Title

There’s a snort of laughter from Van Mathias before the question even finished.

For four years, the Indiana grad student had hammered away, with plenty of success, at the same three events at the Big Ten Championships. Those events – the 100 butterfly, 200 fly and 200 individual medley – yielded him nine A finals and six NCAA swims.

But for his fifth season, Mathias not only changed it up, but swung the pendulum about as far away from the 200 fly as could be. The reward for his adaptability was a first and treasured individual gold medal, in the 50 freestyle, something that the 2018 version of Mathias that arrived in Bloomington would’ve regarded as unthinkable.

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“I think he’d call you crazy,” Mathias said by phone Sunday. “I had always loved swimming all kinds of events. I can attribute that to my club coaches always putting me in different stuff and expanding my race vocabulary so I’m not just coming in as a one-trick pony. But I think it’s pretty funny how I came in swimming a long-course 200 butterfly and I’m leaving college swimming a short-course yards 50 freestyle. It still feels really good.”

Mathias assembled a most unlikely Big Tens for the Hoosiers, not in his accolades but in how he went about it. He’s been omnipresent among the finals elite in his first four years. He earned a silver medal in the 200 IM as a junior and a bronze in the 200 fly as a freshman, to go with four relay golds, mostly in the 800 free relay. He reached NCAAs in all three events in 2019 and 2021 (and would’ve in 2020 had it not been cancelled by the pandemic). His best finish nationally was 25th in the IM as a freshman.

So entering his bonus pandemic season, Mathias took stock with coach Ray Looze. He felt he’d hit a wall in his preferred events, his best result in 2022 eighth in the IM. It was the first season he didn’t swim an individual event at NCAAs. He wanted to factor in what would be best for a team looking to defend its conference title and what would be best for his individual aspirations.

“I think maybe a little bit of burnout because I’ve been swimming 200 fly and IM and 100 fly since I was little and it’s kind of always been my lineup,” he said. “With this year, switching it up, it’s been refreshing. It’s been a new challenge and a new goal to take on, but I think it’s a little bit of burnout and trying to switch things up and revitalize my career a little bit.”

Mathias let his training show him the way. He was leaning toward the 200 free as a possibility but ended up settling on the 100 breaststroke as he progressed through the season. The 50 was more an event of opportunity for the Hoosiers, even for someone who hadn’t cracked 20 seconds before this season. (His best time had been 20.05, in the fall of 2018 and again in Jan. 2022.) Instead of slogging away in fly, he leaned on his promising relay splits and tried to parlay those into individual results.

The results were spectacular. After winning four relays in his first four years, he swam on all three winning freestyle relays in Ann Arbor last week. He clocked a 19.00 to get his first individual gold in the 50 free, then added silver medals in the 100 free and 100 breast. The 100 free is an NCAA A cut of 41.58. The 100 breast was as well, in 51.32, helping the Hoosiers go 2-3-5 in the event. The 100 points Indiana gleaned there Friday night put them in the lead for good in the team competition.

Mathias doesn’t know what lays ahead for him past NCAAs. He’d entered this spring, “pretty much planning to be done swimming” upon graduation, however much the IU postgrad group jokes about keeping him around. His second life as a sprinter might change his mind, and he’s staying open to that possibility.

But for now, he’s enjoying a career-best meet that he’s worked so long for.

“It feels great obviously,” he said. “It’s been a long time coming. It’s different for a lot of reasons because it came in an event I didn’t think I would be swimming in college. But I feel great nonetheless.

“In a 50 like that, sometimes it comes down to luck, and maybe I got a little bit of luck. But at the end of the day, I put in a lot of hard work this year to try to make that event work for me, and I’m glad it worked for me.”

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