Matt Sates Could Elevate Georgia Men After Mid-Season Arrival

matthew-sates-SA Short course swimming championships - Image: BOOGS Photography / Andrew Mc Fadden

Matthew Sates -- Photo Courtesy: BOOGS Photography/Andrew Mc Fadden/Swimming South Africa

Matt Sates Could Elevate Georgia Men After Mid-Season Arrival

At last season’s Men’s NCAA Championships, Texas and Cal occupied the top two spots in the team race (as those two programs have at 10 of the last 11 national meets), while a Florida team led by two soon-to-be Olympic medalists (Bobby Finke and Kieran Smith) claimed third place. Fourth, meanwhile, went to an under-the-radar group from the University of Georgia. While the Bulldog women’s team has captured seven team championships, all since 1999, the Georgia men have never finished higher than third at the national meet (in 1997), so this fourth-place finish was the second-highest in program history.

However, matching or improving upon that finish in 2022 will be challenging as Georgia lost key contributors from last year’s squad, a rarity among top teams with a fifth year of eligibility available for swimmers. Javi Acevedo, who qualified for three NCAA A-finals last season, and Camden Murphy, who was third in the 100 fly and fifth in the 200 fly last year, both moved on from college swimming. The Bulldogs also lost their top breaststroker, Jack Dalmolin, who placed 15th in the 200 breast and was a contributor on medley relays.

Still, Georgia returns a strong nucleus led by sophomores Luca Urlando and Jake Magahey. Urlando came exceptionally close to qualifying for the U.S. Olympic team, missing by less than a tenth in the 200-meter butterfly, and he also surrendered a spot in the 200 freestyle final where relay berths were available. Urlando placed fourth in the 200-yard fly and eighth in the 100 fly at last season’s NCAAs.

Magahey, meanwhile, won a shocking NCAA title in the 500 free last season, and he also placed second in the 1650 free. Georgia has two other returning A-finalists in Dillon Downing (50 free) and Ian Grum (400 IM).

That’s a solid group, but this might be the deepest NCAA Championships in recent memory because of the presence of fifth-year swimmers. So Georgia’s hopes of making another run at the top-five might rest on the shoulders of an 18-year-old who swam his first meet as a Bulldog and his first meet ever in short course yards this past weekend.

That would be Matt Sates, the South African who just arrived in Athens to join Georgia mid-year. In his first individual race in Georgia’s dual meet against Emory, Sates won the 200 free in 1:33.89. That is an elite performance for a dual meet, and it helped Sates finish a full two seconds ahead of Urlando.

What can he do when he is fully prepared for a championship meet? That remains to be seen, and a lot depends on how Sates adjusts to the unfamiliar racing environment that is short course yards. But this fall, he lit up the FINA World Cup circuit with impressive short course meters performances in the 200 free and 200 IM. He swam a time of 1:40.65 in the 200 free, improving to sixth all-time in the event while defeating Australian star Kyle Chalmers on multiple occasions, and his 200 IM time of 1:51.45 moved him to ninth all-time.

Time conversions are rarely a perfect indicator of a swimmer’s potential, but his 200 free time converts to 1:30.83. Only eight men have ever beaten that mark, and just three (Dean Farris, Smith and Drew Kibler) remain in college swimming. In the 200 IM, his best time converts to 1:40.31, which would have been good for fourth place at NCAAs last year.

It is unclear at this point what would be the third event for Sates at the SEC Championships and NCAA Championships, but he will surely play a role on several Bulldog relays as well. Regardless, we’re looking at an instant-impact performer, one who changes the ceiling for what Georgia can accomplish on the national level in March.

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