U of A men's swimming putting up exceptional performances

It seems like just yesterday that Ben Loorz was officially introduced as Arizona’s head coach for the swimming and diving program.

Looking back, it was on May 20.

A lot has happened over the last six months, including getting off to a hot start for the Wildcat men.

On Thursday, Swim Swam listed the Arizona men’s team at No. 21 in the nation.

“I thought the 21st ranking was super appropriate; it would have been strange if we were much higher than that,” Loorz said. “I think that’s about where we should be based on our N.C. State results. What gives me a lot of confidence is that we did a good job of not over prioritizing a mid-season invite like that. It was clearly an important event for us. We prepared for it well. We trained hard to be in shape for it, but it wasn’t like we did a full three week taper down and we didn’t focus on that as, like, the major event of the year. It was one step along the path of the season, and we treated it as such.”

Still, Loorz added it was a bit of a risk to take that approach.

“You can get those relays, you can get some people who are ready to go fast or really tired, that can make it tough to go those big times,” Loorz added. “But we did fine. We stepped up and we still delivered those times, even though it was, in some ways, a really work in progress meet for us. I think more than anything, it gives the team a lot of confidence as we head into the second half of the season that, ‘Yeah, hey, we were great, but we also didn’t spend it all. There’s more, more, more to come.’”

In that Wolfpack Elite GAC Invite, two men’s relay teams came away with NCAA ‘A’ cuts and even more had personal bests and top times in the nation.

The men’s 800 Free Relay with Ralph Daleiden, Tomas Lukminas, Lars Kuljus and Miles Bottai came away with the now-fifth best time in the country at 6:13.31. The 400 free relay team with Daleiden, Lukminas, Jadan Nabor and Hunter Ingram finished in 2:48.65 – the seventh-best time in the nation.

“The 800 free relay is our best event,” Loorz said. “It’s always been a very important relay to me. I do think it’s the hallmark of a really good program — a program that has depth and knows how to train. It’s the longest relay we have in the NCAA, and it shows a team that’s got good work ethic.”

As Loorz details the athletes in the 800 free, Daleiden, the 5-11 junior swimmer from Belgium, is the first one who stands out. He has qualified for the NCAAs in multiple events – both individual (50, 100, 200 free) and relay (200, 400, 800 free) in his previous years. He was a second-team All-American in the 400 free relay last year and finished in the top six in multiple events at the Pac-12 Tournament.

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The other swimmer who is standing out is freshman Lukminas from Lithuania. An Olympian who was lined up to participate at the Word Championship a few weeks ago in Budapest but got sick and wasn’t able to swim is “having an immediate impact on the program,” Loorz said.

Loorz said the depth they have this season in this event is incredible. While he said Kuljus and Bottai in rounding out that team, “we’re awesome,” there are three others fighting every day for a spot. And even with a different lineup, he projected the Wildcats still would have earned that NCAA ‘A’ cut.

Another Wildcat who put up two remarkable performances in the 100 and 200 butterfly was junior Haakon Naughton. Naughton’s time of 45.27 in the 100 was fourth in the UA history and 12th in the nation. His 1:40.55 in the 200 was second in the UA record books and fourth in the nation.

Diving standard

UA coach Dwight Dumais has the diving team rolling along early in the season. Senior Brooke Earley, who was a two-time Pac-12 diver of the week last season, finished 13th at the Women’s 3m event at USA Diving Winter Nationals that wrapped up on Dec. 15.

Her score was 470.75 in the 3m against 37 other divers.

On the men’s side, Gage DuBois, who is coming off a stellar rookie year finishing as the Pac-12’s freshman diver of the year, earned back-to-back Big 12 diver of the week nods. At the Texas Diving Invitational, he placed second in the men’s 1-meter with a score of 361.95, outscoring divers from all Big 12 schools, as well as Texas, the No. 1 program in the country.

The week before, he finished second at USC in both the 1m (357.25) and 3m (361.25).

Much of the continued success on the diving side of things is directly related to Dumais.

“Coach Dwight is excellent at understanding the difference between where divers at, like, point A and point B, where they’re headed,” Loorz said. “He’s really, really good at getting them to move in a very progressive way along that pathway. …

“I think it could look like that is happening in spurts and starts, or it’s like, ‘Oh, wow, there’s probably blossoming.’ But the truth is, from what I’ve observed, it’s very systematic for Coach Dwight and very logical. What you’re seeing is just the next step in their progression, and it’s been a part of the process the entire time, really. I know that’s a little bit less dramatic, but I think it’s a compliment to Dwight’s skills as a coach and how those athletes just keep putting one foot in front of the other and keep improving for four years in a row.”