By Braden Keith on SwimSwam
When senior Colin Wright qualified for the 2020 NCAA Men’s Swimming & Diving Championships via an 18.98 in the 50 free and a 42.01 in the 100 free, he became the first swimmer from his school to qualify for the NCAA Championship meet since 1986.
And barring an unexpected reprieve, Wright may be the last-ever NCAA Championship qualifier from his school after the university announced on Thursday that it would cut its swimming & diving programs, along with 5 other sports, as part of cost-savings measures.
Wright’s swim, especially in the 50 free, that made him just the 4th swimmer from a mid-major school to go sub-19 in the 50 yard free, is an obvious casualty of the loss of mid-major programs. His was one of the best stories of the 2019-2020 NCAA season, even though it was ultimately cut short by the onrushing coronavirus pandemic.
But, as current University of Texas assistant and former USA Swimming National Junior Team coach Mitch Dalton pointed out on Twitter on Thursday, the most significant role that mid-majors play in our swimming infrastructure might not be the swims they produce directly, but rather the people they produce directly.
This!
