Penn’s breaststroke legacy continues.
At Ivy League men’s swimming and diving championships at Princeton last week, sophomore breaststroke specialist Watson Nguyen continued Penn men’s swimming and diving legacy of dominance in the breaststroke events by claiming titles in both races. Junior individual medley specialist Peter Whittington finished just behind in second to complete a 1-2 punch in the 200-yard breaststroke. Their individual performances were the highlights of Penn’s performance as the team finished eighth at the championships with 677.5 points.
With the conference titles and swimming times under the national qualification standard, Nguyen punched his ticket to his first NCAA Division I championship. This was the first Ivy League championships under the new auto-bid qualification for NCAAs.
On the third day of the championships, Nguyen locked up the top seed heading into the 100 breast final. Yale breast/individual medley specialist Jake Wang was close behind with three other Bulldogs set for the championship race. In the final, only 0.14 seconds separated top three swimmers at the halfway point. Nguyen put up a strong second 50 and hit a well-timed finish to win his first Ivy League title by a second with a time of 51.18.
“You just got to go in there and have fun like this. I’m not gonna have this opportunity to swim in front of this crowd, and swim against these competitors for another year,” Nguyen said. “[To] have this once a year, you want to just have fun with them.”
Nguyen also broke a DeNunzio pool record and Wharton and Engineering senior and Olympian Matt Fallon’s program record as well as earned a berth to his first NCAAs. It’s extra sweet for Nguyen, as last year, he was the first swimmer left off the NCAA qualifier list under the old qualification process.
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“I saw that 100 breast record coming,” Fallon told ESPN about the race. “He’s been so fast all year. He’s been putting in the work. It was great to finally see that come to fruition.”
It was a slightly different story with the 200 breast, but the same victor.
In the final, it was Nguyen and Whittington in the middle of the pool looking to fill the shoes of Fallon, who claimed the last three out of four titles in this event and has the American record in the meters edition. Penn has had at least two swimmers in the final of this event since 2022.
Nguyen led the field at the half with Columbia breast/IM specialist Joshua Corn just 0.06 behind. Heading into the final 50 yards, Corn, out of lane two, touched the wall first — 0.01 seconds ahead of Nguyen. Whittington was third at the 150-yard mark and put up the fastest third 50 split of the field with a 28.85 — a testament to his endurance from his 400 IM.
“I did not think that that Corn was that close to us, and he was winning at the 150,” Nguyen said. “That last 25 is what me and Peter trained for, and it's just to finish the race strong … That's where it comes from.”
In the final 12 yards, it was a stroke-for-stroke battle between Corn, Nguyen, and Whittington, who was closing in fast on his competitors. Nguyen kept up the pace, and at the finish, Nguyen out-touched Whittington by 0.07 to lead a 1-2 finish for the Quakers. Nguyen notched a time of 1:52.03 to add another event to his NCAAs lineup, while Whittington hit a personal best with 1:52.10 that will likely qualify him to NCAAs once the complete qualifier list is announced next week.
Fallon, who has been close to the team all season as he finishes his dual-degree program, fittingly handed the awards for both breaststroke events. When Nguyen first came to visit Penn during his junior year of high school, Fallon hosted Nguyen. Now, the Penn legend handed the sophomore his first Ivy League titles. With the wins, Nguyen became the first Penn men’s swimmer to earn two Ivy League victories at one championship meet since 2019.
“I’ve always looked up to [Fallon] since [junior year],” Nguyen said, “In my head, I’m thinking, ‘There’s no way I’m gonna let this guy, Matt Fallon, the guy I trained with, a guy who embodies Penn swim and dive, the Olympian is going to put a metal over anyone else’s head. In the 100, I’m not letting him put it over anyone else. In the 200, he’s gonna put it over either me or Peter.”
In addition to a silver medal in the 200 breast, Whittington also notched a runner-up finish in the 400 IM. After the prelims, less than one second between the top four in the 400 IM. With a strong back half, Whittington gave chase to leader Brown IM specialist Marton Nagy, but Nagy was able to hang on to claim a second-straight title.
Another notable performance was the 800 freestyle relay, which shaved off 0.05 seconds from the previous program record to give the Quakers some momentum on the first day of the championships.
With Ivies in the books, Nguyen — who now ranks 13th and 20th in the NCAA in the 100 and 200 breaststroke events, respectively — and likely Whittington will return to Sheerr Pool to train through spring break before heading to Atlanta for NCAAs held from March 25-28.
