Updated: March 4, 2024, at 1:06 p.m.
At the start of the season, fans had high hopes for the reigning A-10 champions. With swimming and diving’s threepeat conference championship performance complete, they now have their eyes set on loftier goals.
Men’s junior Djurdje Matic and women’s sophomore Ava Topolewski are near locks to be invited to the NCAA championships to compete in their respective events in March. Matic is currently ranked 18th in the nation in the 100-yard butterfly while Topolewski is ranked 24th in the 1,650-yard freestyle.
“With the success we’ve had, our two NCAA qualifiers couldn’t be any more different than each other,” Swimming Head Coach Brian Thomas said. “We have Djurdje, who’s a drop-dead sprinter, and Ava, who is a distance swimmer.”
While they may swim different distances, they have one thing in common: Olympic aspirations. Topolewski earned an invite to the U.S. Olympic time trials in Indianapolis in June after swimming a personal-best 16:44.01 in the 1500-meter freestyle at Navy on Thursday.
Matic represented Serbia at the World Aquatics Championships in Doha, Qatar, earlier this month for the 50-meter butterfly, 100-meter butterfly and 400-meter medley relay. After NCAA championships, Matic and his coaches will continue to train with an eye toward qualifying for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. He will seek to do so at the European Aquatics Championships, being held in his home country at the end of June.
“After NCAAs that’s our goal and that’s our target for the rest of the season,” Matic said.
While Matic’s season will extend through June, for most GW swimmers and divers, their season has come to a close. The program started off the season with a series of dual meets against some of the top teams in the nation. Their first meet was against Virginia Tech, whose men’s and women’s teams are both ranked in the top 25 in the nation.
“Our dual meet schedule is built to challenge us,” Thomas said.
Up until the Revolutionaries demolished Georgetown on Jan. 20, the only team victory came from the women defeating Pitt in a Nov. 4 dual meet, 171-128. The women’s teams previously podiumed several swimmers at the women’s 400-yard individual medley at the Rutgers Invitational on Oct. 6, and the diving team finished third at the West Virginia Invitational on Nov. 16.
“The dual meet win against Pitt for the women is probably the biggest dual meet victory we’ve had at GW,” Thomas said.
Pittsburgh’s Trees Pool is a long-course pool, meaning it is a full Olympic length of 50 meters, while The Smith Center’s pool, set to be destroyed before next season, is only 25 meters. For the swimmers, this meant turning half as much as they normally do in their home pool.
“By the time we get to conference, it’s easier,” said sophomore diver Olivia Paquette. “You get better and you become a better athlete and a better competitor by competing against people who push you, and I think that has led to our success at A-10s.”
This season, the team finished strong, setting 17 conference records and 27 program records at the A-10 Championships in events such as the men’s 100-yard butterfly and 400-yard individual medley and women’s 100-yard breaststroke and 400-yard medley. Both coaches won Coach of the Year awards and junior Connor Rodgers earned a co-Performer of the Year Honor from the A-10.
“The record board is completely blank on both sides, almost,” Rodgers said. “We’re sending, for the first time, a guy and a girl to NCAA’s. So it’s really cool to be a part of a program that’s still peaking and improving every year.”
On top of Matic’s and Topolewski’s likely appearances in NCAA championships, six GW divers qualified for Zone A championships, a qualifying event for the National Championships. A handful of top-scoring divers from each event in Zone A will make it to NCAAs.
The Zone A championships will be held from March 11 to 13 at the Denunzio Pool in Princeton, New Jersey. Paquette and junior Dara Reyblatt qualified for all three boards: one-meter, three-meter and platform.
“Olivia is always in the mix,” said Head Dive Coach Christopher Lane. “She’s beaten a lot of those people who’ve made NCAA’s before, so it’s hard to predict what that day is going to be like, but we definitely will make sure that she’s as prepared as possible.”
Paquette will look to expand upon her success this season, in which she won both one-meter and three-meter dives at the A-10 Championships. She now holds program records in both dives, after breaking the one-meter record this past weekend.
“This year, I set records that surprised myself,” Paquette said. “I think I’ve really learned that I’m taking my performance to the next level. With the one-meter record this week that was a really exciting one. I’ve kind of been eyeballing it since I got here.”
The men and women sent a collection of swimmers and varying events to the Bulldog Invitational Last Chance meet in Athens, Georgia, this weekend to attempt to qualify for the NCAA championships.
Junior Moriah Freitas swam in the women’s 100-yard butterfly and 200-yard butterfly. Sophomore Phoebe Wright earned third in the women’s 200-yard backstroke and competed in the 100-yard backstroke. Junior Ava DeAngelis earned silver in the 100-yard and 200-yard breaststroke.
Djurdje earned first in the men’s 100-yard butterfly. Rodgers swam in the 200-yard individual medley, 200-yard backstroke and 400-yard individual medley. Sophomore Toni Dragoja received third in the 200-yard freestyle and sixth in the 100-yard freestyle. Dragoja will also compete in the European Championships after earning a 49.42 in the 100-meter freestyle event Feb. 29 at Navy. The men’s 200-yard medley relay earned second with a time of 1:25.70, while the men’s 400-yard medley relay concluded in just over three minutes.
Ben Spitalny and Sandra Koretz contributed reporting
This post has been updated to correct the following:
Due to an editing error, The Hatchet incorrectly reported that GW set five conference and eight program records. They set those records on day three of the competition. GW set 17 conference records and 27 program records during the A-10 Championship. We regret this error.
