The Week That Was: Texas Wins 15th Men’s NCAA Title, Eddie Reese Retires

Photo Courtesy: NCAA Media

The Week That Was sponsored by Suitmate.

Legendary coach Eddie Reese announced his retirement Monday after winning his 15th national title at the University of Texas, as he will step down after the Tokyo Olympics this summer. Long-time Minnesota coach Terry Ganley also announced her retirement this week at the conclusion of the school year.

Read below the five biggest stories in The Week That Was sponsored by Suitmate.

The Week That Was #1: Texas Men Win 15th NCAA Title

Photo Courtesy: Mike Comer/NCAA Photos via Getty Images

By Andy Ross

The Texas Longhorns won their 15th NCAA title in men’s swimming and diving in Greensboro, North Carolina with a 27 point win over California 595 – 568. This is Texas’ 15th total national title and their sixth in the last 11 years, as Cal finished in the top two for the 11th straight year.

Texas is the first team since Auburn in 2006 to win the men’s national title without winning an individual swimming event.

#2: Eddie Reese Announces Retirement

Photo Courtesy: Taylor Brien

By David Rieder

Eddie Reese, the longtime head coach of the University of Texas men’s team, has announced his retirement. Reese, 79, won his 15th national championship on Saturday when his Longhorns beat California by 27 points at the men’s NCAA championships in Greensboro, N.C.

Previously, Reese and Texas won national championships in 1981, for four years straight from 1988 through 1991, in 1996, three years straight from 2000 to 2002, in 2010 and then four years straight from 2015 through 2018. Following his win this week, he is the only swimming coach to win national titles in five different decades. Also in his illustrious career, Reese has coached 22 Olympic gold medalists and been the head coach of the U.S. men’s Olympic team in 1992, 2004 and 2008. He was an assistant coach on the U.S. Olympic team in 1996, 2000 and 2012.

Reese will remain in his role as head coach through the Olympic Trials this June and the ensuing Olympics in Tokyo, and then he will transition to head coach emeritus. Wyatt Collins, Reese’s assistant coach for the last five seasons, will take over as interim head coach.

In a zoom press conference Monday afternoon, Reese said that he just decided within the last week that he would be retiring. Reese called Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte on Saturday (while he was at NCAAs but before Texas officially clinched the national championship) to tell Del Conte of his decision to retire, but Reese did not tell his swimmers until a 3 p.m. meeting Monday afternoon.

“Going into this swim meet, I had already made my decision that I was going to retire, regardless of the outcome of the meet,” Reese said. “I’m real happy about the outcome, but this isn’t anything that I’ve dwelled on. I’ve always said I would know when to retire, and it would always be before anybody wanted me to retire. So that’s where I am. I just decided last week I was going to retire.”

The Week That Was #3: ISL Prepares For Third Season

Photo Courtesy: MIKE LEWIS/ISL

By Dan D’Addona

The International Swimming League (ISL) has begun planning for its third season in 2021.

ISL Season 3 is planned to take place over the course of three phases. Starting from the end of August, the first phase, also known as the Regular Season, will see the 10 ISL Clubs competing during approximately 6 weeks, in a setting similar to that of the ISL Season 2’s bubble in Budapest. This will be followed by a Play-off phase of three weeks in November, which will bring together the top eight ISL Clubs that will compete for a spot in the ISL Final. The ISL Grand Finale is set to take place at the end of December, when the ISL 2021 Champions will be crowned.

The ISL is currently conducting its host cities selection process for the third season, with talks taking place with cities in Asia, Europe and North America.

Founder Konstantin Grigorishin said, ‘’We proved to the sporting world with Season 2020 that the International Swimming League is a fantastic ‘sportainment’ product. Our athletes, coaches and General Managers put on a spectacular show in Budapest. The world-class performances, amplified by a production unsurpassed in the world of swimming, made the sporting world sit up and take notice. The ISL is here to stay. Now is the time to build on our momentum with a spectacular Season 3. We will continue to innovate, using our experience in Budapest and the feedback from our swimmers.’’

#4: Terry Ganley Announces Retirement

Photo Courtesy: Minnesota Athletics

By Dan D’Addona

The longest-tenured coach in the history of Gopher Athletics, Terry Ganley, has announced her retirement after 44 seasons with the swimming and diving programs. Ganley is one of the most-decorated, pivotal and important athletic figures at the University.

The statistics from her coaching career are staggering. She helped lead the Golden Gophers to seven team Big Ten Championships and 17 NCAA Top-15 finishes. On her watch, the Gophers won 15 individual national titles, earned All-America honors 299 times and accumulated 532 All-America certificates. Her student-athletes also claimed 147 Big Ten championships, and her women’s program amassed a dual meet record of 318-83-5 during the 44 seasons.

“Today I had the privilege to do something that not many people get to do,” Terry Ganley said. “I was able to announce my retirement from the place where I spent four years as a student-athlete and then coached for 44 years. Maroon and Gold is and always will be home for me. It was an honor to teach, coach and mentor the young women and men of this great program. I am truly blessed to have spent my career as a Gopher.”

The Week That Was #5: Kristof Milak Throws Down 1:51 200 Fly in Budapest

Kristof Milak – Photo Courtesy: Becca Wyant

By Liz Byrnes

Kristof Milak posted the second-fastest 200 fly in history with a time of 1:51.40 in morning finals at the Hungarian Nationals in Budapest.

The 21-year-old had thundered to the fifth-fastest 200 fly all-time of 1:52.50 in Tuesday evening’s heats and returned to the Duna Arena the following morning with the schedule mirroring that of the Olympics which are scheduled to start in Tokyo in four months.

Link to results

First up was the 50 free which he won in 22.19 before his jaw-dropping effort in the fly where he was under his own world-record pace until the final 50.

Splits:

Hungarian Nationals: 24.37/52.73/1:21.49/1:51.40

World record 2019: 24.66/52.88/1:21.57/1:50.73

It was a time that only he has bettered when he went 1:50.73 en-route to gold at the 2019 World Championships in Gwangju and in the process obliterated Michael Phelps‘ world record of 1:51.51 which had stood since 2009.

Wednesday’s performance was 0.11 inside Phelps’ best as the Hungarian produced a performance that will reverberate across pool decks around the world.

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