Morning Splash: Gold Medalists Murphy and Schooling Return to NCAA Roots

joseph-schooling, ryan-murphy, morning-splash

Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

Morning Splash by David Rieder.

By David Rieder.

Before they were Olympic gold medalists, they were NCAA champions, several times over.

Three years ago, as a freshman at Cal, Ryan Murphy edged out Penn State’s Shane Ryan to win the NCAA title in the 100 back, and a day later he finished first in the 200 back, as well. As a sophomore in Iowa City, Murphy repeated in both distances, and he did so again as a junior in Atlanta, lowering the American records to 43.49 in the 100 back and 1:35.73 in the 200 back.

But Murphy insisted at the 2016 NCAA meet that his focus was elsewhere. Sure, he wanted to swim some fast yards times, but he had skipped the Pac-12 championships in favor of attending an arena Pro Swim Series event in Orlando for a reason—the meet circled on his calendar was the Olympic Games.

Also aiming for Rio was Joseph Schooling, now at the University of Texas but previously one year behind Murphy at the Bolles School in Jacksonville. In his first two years at Texas, he swept the NCAA titles in both butterfly events as he led the Longhorns to a pair of dominant team championships.

In 2016, he set a new NCAA record in the 100 fly with a 44.01, but one day later, Schooling almost saw his winning streak broken at the hands of teammate Jack Conger. Conger led for 175 yards and finished in 1:38.06, more than a second faster than anyone had ever swum before. Only one problem: Schooling pulled out an insane 25.43 final 50 split and got in just ahead at 1:47.93.

Schooling would not compete in the 200 fly when he represented Singapore in Rio, instead choosing to put his focus on a showdown against Michael Phelps in the 100 fly.

Murphy, meanwhile, had to battle the gauntlet of U.S. Olympic Trials, where he had to get through the likes of Matt Grevers and David Plummer to even get on the U.S. team. But after making it to his first Games, Murphy won gold in his first Olympic race, the 100 back, in an Olympic record-time of 51.97.

Plummer got the bronze that night, and after the race, he gushed about the 21-year-old, noting that the performance was only a matter of time.

“I think everybody’s known that was coming from Murph for a couple years now,” Plummer said. He’s going to be one of the best of all time and already is, so just to be a little part of his journey has been a really cool thing.”

Three days later, Murphy picked up a second gold medal in the 200 back, out-dueling Australia’s Mitch Larkin, and then he led off the U.S. 400 medley relay in 51.85, setting a world record for the 100 back. The Americans went on to win gold.

Schooling had to wait awhile for his big swim in Rio, as the 100 fly did not begin until the sixth day of competition. Viewed as a strong challenger for a medal coming into the meet, Schooling promptly earned the top seed out of both prelims and semifinals.

In the final, when surrounded by Phelps and past World Champions Chad le Clos and Laszlo Cseh, Schooling dominated. He finished in 50.39, well ahead of the three-way tie for silver between Phelps, le Clos and Cseh (51.14).

Like Plummer said of Murphy, Phelps had nothing but praise for the man a decade his younger who had won gold.

“What he is able to achieve is up to him,” Phelps said of Schooling. “I think it’d be pretty cool to see someone else break 50. Watching Joe, I’ve seen him swim yards, and I watched him swim last summer at Worlds. It’s up to him where he wants to take it. Ball’s in his court. As big as he wants to dream and as hard as he wants to work to do whatever’s in his head.”

The consensus best swimmers in the world in their respective events, Murphy and Schooling will be heard from plenty more internationally over the next several years.

Before that, though, the two each have collegiate responsibilities to attend to. Schooling has his Texas Longhorns with a big lead after contributing to two relay wins and posting a third-place finish in the 50 free, while Murphy, who has already finished third in the 200 IM in Indy, has the Golden Bears running second.

Over the next two days, Murphy will be aiming for history, a chance at becoming the second man to ever win NCAA titles in both backstrokes all four years, joining John Naber, who did so in consecutive years from 1974 to 1977.

Murphy already has the top times in history—by far—in both of his backstroke races, but Schooling has some room to drop in the 100 fly. He still has the NCAA record, but Tom Shields swam a 43.84 at U.S. Nationals in December to become the first man under 44. Naturally, Schooling has his sights set on responding.

“I don’t know if Tom is here. I hope he’s here. I want to see him look at that record go down,” he said.

“All that aside, Tom’s a good guy. 43.8 is a serious time. I got a little bit of flack when he was the first guy to go under 44. I was a little pissed off at that. I guess I got to be the first guy to go under 43—might not be this meet. I’m definitely gunning for that record tomorrow.”

In pursuit of short course records and NCAA titles, it’s just like old times for Murphy and Schooling.

All commentaries are the opinion of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Swimming World Magazine nor its staff.

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