Rising junior breaststroke specialist Watson Nguyen improved his personal record by nearly a second en route to his first national title in the 50-meter breaststroke. The Dallas native moved to No. 4 in American history in the event with his impressive 26.65-second finish.
During the past academic year, Nguyen clinched Ivy League titles in the 100- and 200-meter breaststroke. With the new NCAA qualification system, the then-sophomore earned automatic bids to the NCAA Championships at the end of March, where he finished 28th in the 100-meter breaststroke and 26th in the 200-meter breaststroke.
Nguyen decided to spend this summer swimming rather than taking a traditional internship route common at Penn, following in the footsteps of 2026 Wharton and Engineering graduate and 2024 Olympian Matthew Fallon. Nguyen trained with his club team for the first half of the summer, before returning to Penn to do research.
“The school I go to, Penn, we take school work and internships super seriously, so people don’t really swim over the summer time. So it’s been a while since I’ve been able to have a really good long-course season,” Nguyen said in a post-race interview with SwimSwam Magazine.
Despite his impressive resume, Nguyen wasn’t the favorite entering the 50-meter breaststroke. He missed the finals at last year’s national championships, ultimately finishing 11th in the nation. Instead, all eyes this year were on seasoned professional Michael Andrew, who earned a gold medal in the 4x100-meter medley relay at the 2021 Olympic Games.
A quick reaction time off the block and a perfectly timed pull out gave Andrew the edge, but Nguyen wouldn’t let up. It was neck and neck, but Nguyen’s stamina prevailed as he out-touched the Olympian to the title.
Although the second long-course title in program history is an impressive achievement, Nguyen wouldn’t settle for just one medal. On the final day of competition, Nguyen was determined to break one minute in the 100-meter breaststroke for the first time in his career. He hadn’t touched his personal record at the time, a blazing 1:01.22, since the 2023 World Aquatic Junior Championships.
Nguyen stared down tough competition in defending national champion and All-American Alexei Avakov, who competes for Indiana collegiately. The Quaker was a little slow coming off the block, but he didn’t let that deter him from making gains on the first lap, turning just two hundredths of a second behind Avakov.
An impressive last-lap effort from Avakov sealed the deal, but Nguyen wasn’t far behind, lowering his personal record by over a second with a 59.79-second finish – going under a minute for the first time in his career.
