Matt Hutchins and the Wisconsin men’s swim team had quite the NCAA Championships this past weekend at the Georgia Institute of Technology. The junior from Christchurch, New Zealand, led his team to an 18th-place finish, one of two top-20 finishes for head coach Whitney Hite in his five-year tenure with the Badgers.
Hutchins had an outstanding first day of the meet, swimming the 500-yard freestyle and placing sixth, shattering now-graduated Michael Weiss’ three-year-old school record with a time of 4:13.74. That time led him to his first All-American designation of his career.
On the second day of competition, Hutchins placed 36th in the 200-yard freestyle—his off event—with a time of 1:36.21.
In his final event of the week, Hutchins competed in the mile, obliterating his previous school record by over five seconds with a time of 14:33.09. That time was good for a third-place medal and another All-American designation.
Hutchins was not the only individual swimmer to break a school record at NCAAs: Brett Pinfold rewrote the record books in the 200-yard freestyle, where he placed 15th. His time of 1:33.79 was a personal best and also eclipsed former teammate Nick Caldwell’s time as the fastest ever ever be swum by a UW man. Pinfold received honorable mention All-American designation for that swim.
Pinfold also competed in the 200-yard IM, where his time of 1:44.28 was good for a 21st-place finish.
Fellow junior Cannon Clifton had a successful NCAAs as well: In the morning swim for the 200 free, he trailed Pinfold by one hundredth of a second with a personal best time of 1:34.23. After a swim-off with Trevor Carroll of Louisville for the last spot in the final, Clifton settled for 17th place in the event.
Clifton also swam in the 50-yard freestyle, where he finished 29th, and the 100-yard freestyle, where he finished 18th.
Rounding out the individual competitors for Wisconsin was senior Austin Byrd, in his final collegiate action. In the 200-yard IM, Byrd placed 34th in the medley event with a career-best time of 1:45.87.
Byrd also had impressive showings in both backstroke events; in the 100-yard version of the event, he placed 24th and achieved another career-best time—46.69 seconds. In the 200-yard backstroke, Byrd swam the event in 1:41.40 and notched his third career-best time of the week as well as a 22nd-place finish.
Wisconsin’s three relays also had strong showings. The 800-yard freestyle relay team of Clifton, Ryan Stack, Hutchins and Pinfold placed 12th with a time of 6:18.68, which earned them honorable mention All-American accolades.
The 400-yard medley relay team of Pinfold, Jake Mandli, Harrison Tran and Clifton placed 19th with a time of 3:09.75.
The 400-yard freestyle relay team of Clifton, Pinfold, Stack and Ryan Barsanti broke the school record with a time of 2:51.83. That time earned them an 11th-place finish and honorable mention All-American honors.
The next action for the majority of the Wisconsin swimmers will be the various Olympic Trials for the wide variety of countries they represent. Coming up first, Jessica Unicomb and Sean Maloney will compete in Australian trials, Matt Hutchins will try his shot at the New Zealand team and Anthony Lyons will try to qualify for Team Canada.
