LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- I know, everybody is focused on March Madness. Let me tell you about something really crazy.
In Knoxville last week, the University of Louisville women's swimming and diving team finished fourth in the nation. On Saturday in Minneapolis, its men's team finished 13th nationally.
The women's team did it without the kind of big stars that have led some of its past national successes, like Kelsi Worrell or Mallory Comerford. This year, they did it with depth and a bunch of All-Americans.
The men's team, in the words of coach Arthur Albiero, "graduated the house." The most experienced swimmers on the team are a couple of sophomores. Here's what Albiero has built. They still expected to be among the top teams in the nation, and they were.
"Sometimes ignorance is bliss, right?" Albiero said. "These guys didn't know they weren't supposed to be this good yet."
The women, of course, expect to be that good every year, because they have been. This was their seventh Top 10 national finish in the past 8 years. It's an amazing accomplishment, and a credit to Albiero and his staff, who have done it a variety of ways.
"There's no superstar, certainly in terms of Mallory or Kelsi – they were so dominant in their events at that time," Albiero said. "But this was a true team effort. We had a diver for the first time, an All-American in both the 3-meter and the platform. We've never had that before. We had 2 girls in the A final of the 50 free, two in the A final of the 100 free. ... It was a team effort all the way. And not everything was perfect, far from it. That's what championships are all about. You've just got to be that team that's resilient. We had this vision from the beginning of the season. Nobody said anything about finishing Top 4, but it was like an unspoken goal. I love the emotional and sentimental experience our team had this week, and seeing the posts, thanking the 2019 team for setting the standard. And this is just us living up to that standard. It's taken a moment to create this standard, but it's great to have three Top 5 finishes and two Top 4 finishes."
For the women, there were five podiums with five first team All-American performances along with two honorable mention All-American awards as well.
Gabi Albiero and Christiana Regenauer both earned All-American honors in the 100 freestyle. Albiero touched fourth in the championship heat with a time of 46.80, dropping .08 off her preliminary time, the second fastest time in school history and a personal best. Regenauer was seventh with a time of 47.50.
Abby Hay earned All-American honors with a time of 1:53.90, finishing eighth in the finals of the 200 butterfly.
Diver Else Praasterink finished eighth on the platform with a score of 270.70.
In the 400 Free Relay Gabi Albiero (47.38), Christiana Regenauer (47.24), Julia Dennis (47.49) and Ella Welch (47.46) combined for a time of 3:09.57 and a third-place finish.
On the men's side, the 11th-place finish was fueled by Denis Petrashov, won the 200 breaststroke consolation final with a time of 1:51.23, dropping .30 from his prelim time and earning honorable mention All-American honors. Earlier in the week, he set a school and ACC record in the 100 breast and finished third in the event to earn first team All-American honors with a time of 50.78, dropping .34 from his preliminary time..
Freshman diver Thomas Dowling scored 238 points in his NCAA debut on platform.
In the 400 free relay, the foursome of Michael Eastman (42.52), Guy Brooks (42.17), Dalton Lowe (42.31) and Abdelrahman El-Araby (41.93) took second in their heat with a time of 2:48.93 and 11th place overall. Florida took the top honor with an NCAA record setting time of 2:44.07.
"From the very beginning, it was about working towards trying to get this group ready for the end of the season," Albiero said. "I see a little bit of parallel with I just saw something from Jeff Walz about thinking his team could play but it's going to take us a moment to get there. And I felt the same way about our men's team. I thought we could play, I thought we could put together some relays that could really compete, but it took us a moment and it really was a function of the freshmen developing. Normally, in men's swimming, freshmen tend to develop a little bit slower, but this group has a couple of freshmen that really have stepped up so that that has had a huge impact on the relays."
For Albiero, who has built Louisville's program basically from scratch in the midst of an established swimming community, the sustained success is gratifying.
"The city of Louisville has had a great swimming history," Albiero said. "And even though I'm in my 20th season at Louisville, we're still kind of the new kids on the block. But our community is sports nuts, and they understand high level. And I always feel the love when we get to bring our team on the court or on the field. ... It's a brutal sport and there's so much to do and you have no offseason. But it's awesome and I'm grateful for the support.
"This was a fun run, a great team to work with. The practices were fun, great and full of energy. You know, just one of those seasons you truly appreciate after 27 years of college coaching. This one was special for sure."
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