Editor’s note: This is the fourth story in a series about the most underrated Arizona Wildcats athletes.
Noah Reid does it all, in and out of the pool.
When he’s not racing to a top finish in the Pac-12 Championships, the Arizona Wildcats junior is cheering on his teammates from the pool deck and making the Pac-12’s winter honor roll. And serving on the UA’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. And taking part in community service activities.
In the pool, Reid specializes in the 100- and 200-yard freestyle and the 100-yard butterfly. He’s also one of the Pac-12’s best in the 100 butterfly. It took his coach, Augie Busch, a few moments before he remembered that Reid would have made his first individual NCAA championships this year because “he’s become a huge part of our relays.”
Reid’s focus on the team makes him an easy fit.
“I think just knowing what you can accomplish as a collective group is always going to be greater than what someone can do by themselves,” Reid said. “It’s funny: I would watch ‘SportsCenter’ every morning while I’d eat breakfast with my mom. I’d hear LeBron James and all those famous people talk about — ‘There’s the famous quote: there’s no I in team’ — and it’s just something that I’ve always strived to have and I never really had it in high school. I think being at Arizona has really just maximized the brothers I surround myself with and just the love I have for a collective group.”
Why he’s good: He’s an All-American. The 22-year-old Missourian finished fifth in the 100 butterfly at this year’s Pac-12 Championships, posting a time of 46.15 seconds. He added a third-place finish with the 400 freestyle relay team, swimming his leg in 42.44. As a result, the Wildcats finished second in the Pac-12 — their best result since 1996.
The 6-foot-7-inch swimmer has dropped his times dramatically every year he’s been at Arizona. He embraces the grind of getting better every day.
“People dread practice. They dread going through the pain of … working really hard and being broken down, but it’s something I love,” he said.
“I love coming to practice and kind of getting beaten up, breaking down and everything. I love the trash talking that goes on during practice and just, like, hanging out with the guys. It’s just the whole process is something that I just truly love.
“My racing style is very aggressive. I like to take my races out really fast, and see how hard I can bring them home. And it’s been really interesting to train up the event, as my training partner — and probably my best friend — is (UA senior) Jorge Iga. He swims the complete opposite as me.
He likes to bring races home really hard. I like to take them out. Even during practice, my goal is to get as far ahead of him as I can the first half, and I know he’s coming for me the second half. I think that racing style has been a huge blessing for me is having Jorge always in the lane next to me, challenging me and pushing me to strive to make my weaknesses something better.”
Why he’s underrated: Reid is surrounded by All-Americans and future Olympians like Brooks Fail. And with Iga and fellow Wildcats Marin Ercegovic and Daniel Namir competing in his events, it’s easy to go unnoticed. Iga picked up bronze medals for Mexico at last summer’s Pan-American Games in the 4×100 free and 4×200 free and the mixed 4×100 free relays. Namir and Iga finished second and third in the 200 freestyle finals at the Pac-12 Championships. Ercegovic, who started the season with the seventh-best time in the nation in the 100 freestyle, finished third in the event.
Teammates trust Reid, so much so that they voted him captain.
Coachspeak: “He’s as meticulous of a person I’ve ever seen in terms of film study. I’ve spent more hours watching film with him than anybody I’ve ever coached. He trains hard every day, never cheats the sport. And he’s just an incredible leader. He’s just a guy that people want to battle for and battle with.” – Busch
He said it: “I think it’s kind of a blessing in disguise. I’m not like someone who’s all over the newspaper or the SwimSwam headlines, but I’m fine with being called underrated. I know what I bring to the team. My coaches know what I bring to the team and so do my teammates. That’s what’s important to me — just showing up every day for my teammates, my coaches.” — Reid
