Pacific’s Men Swimming: Highlights of the Season
Photo taken by Amaya Leiby
Rising through the rankings.
The Pacific’s Men’s Swim team is led by Head Coach Katelyne Herrington and Assistant Coaches Nate LeRoy, Tim Buisson, and Angel Alcala. Coach Herrington started her career at Pacific in 2016 as an assistant coach until 2018. She then returned in 2019 as Head Coach of the Swim program and is coming to the end of her seventh season. Assistant Coach Nate LeRoy graduated from Pacific in 2013 and joined the program in the fall of 2022. Tim Buisson joined the swim staff in July of 2023. Angel Alcala is a Pacific alumni, who graduated in 2020, and returned to join the swim staff in the fall of 2024.
The Men’s Swim Team began training for their season during the first week of the fall semester, looking ahead to their first meet on September 28th, against Fresno Pacific. The final score of the dual meet against Fresno Pacific was 209-52, with the Tigers bringing home the win. As the season progressed, the Tigers won meets against UC Santa Cruz, CSU Bakersfield, and California Baptist University. With a current record of 4-2, the Men’s team has a final dual meet against Simon Fraser before the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) Championships. The MPSF Championship meet will take place from February 19th-22nd in St. George, Utah.
The team has many talented and hard-working athletes that make a significant contribution to the team such as Javier Lopez Guillen, Mattia Giurgevich, and Mitchell Hopper. Javier Lopez is a freshman on the team this year from Inca, Spain. His best events are the 100 butterfly with a time of 46.85 seconds, the 200 yard butterfly going 1:43.62 seconds, and the 500 yard freestyle with the time of 4:30.68. Lopez broke the previous school record in the 200 butterfly.
Mattia Giurgevich is a junior from Limbiate, Italy. He spent his freshman and sophomore year swimming for Lindenwood University. His most impactful events are the 100 breaststroke going 53.20 seconds, the 200 breaststroke with a time of 1:59.29, and the 100 freestyle with a 45.90. Giurgevich was announced as one of the MPSF Athletes on the Week of January 14th after earning eighteen points in the meet against California Baptist University.
Mitchell Hopper is in his last year at Pacific as a senior from Happy Valley, Oregon. Hopper’s best events and times are the 50 freestyle at 20.33 seconds, the 100 freestyle with a time of 43.50 seconds, and the 200 freestyle at 1:35.99. Hopper was chosen to be one of the three men’s captains along with Alex Kurotori and Ethan Cole.
The men ended their previous season ranked 120th in the country, but throughout their record-breaking season, full of new personal bests and hard-work, they have bumped up to a ranking of 90th. Power rankings are determined based on the proximity to the best possible time (or the world record), which is worth 1000 points. The further off a time is from the world record time, the closer the ranking is to zero. Division 1 swimmers are able to achieve rankings of approximately 650 points or greater in at least one event. The team points are determined by taking the four fastest swimmers from each event and averaging their individual power rankings as the final team power ranked score. The men’s team last year ended with a power ranking of 613; this year, the team has improved to a power ranking of 662.
Congratulations to the men’s team and their successful season so far, and good luck in their last dual meet and their MPSF Conference Championship. We all look forward to seeing the final scores and rankings of the 2024-2025 season. Go Tyges!
Sources:
https://pacifictigers.com/sports/mens-swimming-and-diving/roster