NCAA Champion Robert Howard Following Jonty Skinner to Train at Indiana’s Pro Group

Photo Courtesy: Robert Sutton/Alabama Athletics

Recent Alabama grad and NCAA 200 medley relay champion Robert Howard told Swimming World he will be moving from Tuscaloosa to Bloomington, Indiana to follow Jonty Skinner in the lead-up to the 2020 Olympic Trials. Skinner recently got the associate head sprint coaching job at Indiana after being the senior associate head coach for the Crimson Tide the last seven seasons.

Howard just finished his eligibility at the University of Alabama in 2019 where he won two SEC titles in the 50 and 100 free. He also was third in the 50 and fifth in the 100 free at NCAAs this year, as well as anchoring Alabama’s 200 medley relay to an NCAA title. Howard also won three SEC relay titles this year in the 200 free, 200 medley and 400 free.

Howard told Swimming World, “I don’t want to make a change in training just when things start clicking.” He is going to represent Team USA at the World University Games this summer in the 4×100 free relay and will be joining a very stacked pro group at Indiana University. If all the swimmers stay where they are, Howard will have a chance to train alongside Olympian Blake Pieroni and fellow World University Games team member Zach Apple as well as Egyptian national record holder Ali Khalafalla.

Indiana also has a large post-grad group with the likes of Cody Miller, Zane Grothe, Lilly King and Ian Finnerty.

Recently, IU post-grad Ryan Held told Swimming World he was going to be leaving Bloomington to continue training under Coley Stickels, who just took the head coaching job at Alabama. Held and Howard will be switching training locations as they are both following the coaches they found success under.

Howard entered college as a 20.57/45.03 SCY swimmer and a 23.81/51.80 LCM swimmer. He ended his career at Alabama as a 18.74/41.57 SCY swimmer and 22.17/48.67 LCM swimmer. He recently ranked #19 in Swimming World’s power rankings of the best NCAA men’s swimmers in Division I.

Howard was 11th in the United States in 2018 in the 100 free (48.67) and was 9th in the nation in the 50 (22.17). He recently swam at the Bloomington Pro Series this past weekend and swam a 22.19 in the 50 and 49.09 in the 100 free.

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