Proudly donning the Red and Blue under the brightest lights.
Last week, sophomore breaststroke specialist Watson Nguyen and junior individual medley specialist Peter Whittington competed at the NCAA Division I men’s swimming and diving championships. In their debuts on the national stage, Nguyen finished 28th and 26th in the 100-yard and 200-yard breaststroke, respectively, while Whittington placed 23rd and 31st in the 200-yard breast and 400-yard individual medley. The two are the first Quakers not named Matt Fallon to swim at the championships since 2019. This year’s NCAAs were also the first since 2016 to have multiple Quakers compete at the national championships.
“[Peter and I] train very hard, and we’re at it every single day, and we’re going to do our best to have a better result next year and represent Penn way better next year,” Nguyen said.
Nguyen qualified for the championships via this year’s new qualifying system, where conference champions automatically receive a berth to the championships. He swept the breaststroke events at the 2026 Ivy League men’s swimming and diving championships to head to his first-ever appearance on the national stage.
Whittington qualified for the championships with his speedy time of 1:52:10 at Ivies, which was runner-up to Nguyen. He was able to compete in the 400 individual medley as well. The two upheld Penn’s strong reputation in the breaststroke events. Fallon represented the Quakers in both breaststroke events for the last four seasons at NCAAs.
Leading up to the NCAAs, training is not the easiest as it occurs with a smaller group during spring break, with the rest of the Penn community off, and with a tight turnaround to taper and rest ahead of the meet.
Nguyen, though, enjoyed the intimate and individualized atmosphere of the NCAA training group, which included now All-American swimmers senior distance freestyle specialists Anna Moehn and Sydney Bergstrom.
“It’s just great because I know we’re all putting in the work,” Nguyen said, “Then you have Mike, who gives you all the attention, so he’s writing sets specifically for you.”
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As for the meet itself, even with Nguyen’s experience at large-scale meets like World Juniors or US Open, the NCAA championships had a unique atmosphere with the crowds of fans for the powerhouse state programs.
“It’s the most elite people from the top, these top state schools like Texas, Cal, Florida, and there’s so much energy because all the parents are coming out and supporting their kids,” Nguyen said. “This is definitely the most high-energy meet I’ve been to.
The high-energy and big stage came with a lot of pressure, and Nguyen contributed that to his less-than-ideal performance at the meet, finishing in 28th and 26th in the 100-yard and 200-yard breaststroke with times of 52.05 and 1:54.07, off of his best times set less than a month ago at Ivies.
“We were racing some very good people,” Nguyen said, “It’s a lot and a lot of pressure.”
However, just competing at NCAAs for both Nguyen and Whittington is a great accomplishment, as the two were among the first swimmers left off the qualifier list last year in their events. This year, the two finally make the cut.
Looking to the future, the two will get back to training soon for the long course season. Nguyen is looking forward to breaking down the film of his races to analyze and make adjustments to be better when next season rolls around.
In the longer term, the two are exploring paths to achieve every swimmer’s dream: qualifying for the Olympics. Whittington is originally from Hong Kong and has represented China on the international stage at Junior World Championships.
Growing up in Texas, Nguyen has done the same with the U.S., but he just recently acquired dual citizenship between the U.S. and Vietnam to explore the opportunities of representing Vietnam in international competition, which could include the Olympics. The U.S. Olympic swim team is notoriously the most competitive in the world.
“I’m going to go to some meets in Vietnam and to see how I'm enjoy the experience and if I feel like that’s something I really want to continue in the future,” Nguyen said. “I think about the swimming, but outside of that, it’s more of a question of ‘Am I being true to myself?’”
The Quaker duo wouldn’t be the first Ivy League swimmers of recent memory to navigate that path. After deciding to swim professionally instead of starting his finance career post-grad after a breakout senior season, a frequent competitor to Fallon and former Brown swimmer Jack Kelly is set to represent Ireland in professional competition. 2022 Engineering graduate and former Penn swimmer Keanan Dols represented Jamaica at the 2021 Olympics in the 200-meter individual medley.
