Between the hours of 2 p.m. and 5:30 p.m., the Georgetown University swimming and diving team typically packs the 8-lane, 25-yard McCarthy Swimming Pool. Their 6-month season comes to a close at the end of February after the Big East swimming and diving championship. This year, however, there is still one Hoya in the pool well into the month of March.
Sophomore sprint freestyle specialist Owen Watkins is an 8-time Big East gold medalist, this year’s Big East most outstanding male swimmer and an integral part of the Hoya squad that recently captured a five-peat Big East Championship. At the end of this month, Watkins will add another accolade to this list: He will become the first athlete in the 77-year history of the program to represent the Hoyas at the NCAA Championships, competing in the 50-yard freestyle on March 27.
Watkins, who started swimming at the age of 6, said he found his passion for the sport when he joined a new summer pool.
“When I was 8, I switched to a different summer swim pool. We had a new coach there, Coach Pat, he was the one who really got me into the sport,” Watkins told The Hoya. “Swimming was fun, lots of cheers, and the meets were fun — and hanging out with friends, forming relationships there. I got better that summer, and he pushed me to start swimming winter swim.”
“And then it was all from there,” Watkins added. “Eventually, I ended up here, some 12 years later. All it took was one fun summer.”
Watkins said he found his event — the 50 freestyle — through his elementary love for speed.
“I love how fast paced and just don’t think, just go swim as fast as you possibly can and there’s nothing else to it,” Watkins said. “It’s the peak of competitive racing, I think, compared to any of those other events. It’s just the most adrenaline and the one I love getting to swim the most — definitely.”
Watkins not only loves competing in the 50 freestyle, but he excels in the event. Watkins entered the Big East championship with a personal best of 19.44 seconds in the 50 freestyle, just 1/100th of a second off the NCAA championship qualifying standard of 19.43. On the second day of competition, Watkins smashed the 19.43 second time mark — not just once, but on three separate occasions.
Watkins broke the barrier with a mark of 19.27 seconds in the 50 freestyle preliminaries, finishing a full second faster than his closest competitors. He obliterated the mark in the final later, swimming 19.21 seconds to defend his gold and secure a place at the NCAA championships. Watkins then completed the unthinkable, setting a personal best for the third time that day, leading off the 200-yard freestyle relay with a time of 19.17 seconds – his seeding time for NCAAs.
Watkins, who said the sense of community on the team drew him to Georgetown, also credits his teammates for getting him to where he is today.
“As I went through their process, it was clear that throughout the time, talking to coaches, talking to swimmers, that they wanted me to come here,” Watkins said. “It was less of just ‘you’ve got good times; we want to recruit you.’ It was more they wanted me as a person to actually come and swim at Georgetown.”
“The guys were super close, way closer than I had ever been with any of my swim teammates growing up,” Watkins added. “And that was something that I thought would be really cool and something that I wanted to have in college.”
Watkins said he got even more than he expected — he found a family on the team.
“It’s fifty-some almost family members, especially the guys,” Watkins said. “It’s 25 other like brothers you have that you spend most of your days with, training with, kind of doing everything with them together. It’s more than a group of friends. It’s a much stronger bond that I’ve developed, and it’s certainly become the most central part of my experience here.”
Watkins said competing at NCAAs next month will not only reflect his efforts, but the hours his teammates have dedicated to training as well.
“Me competing there is so much more than my 50 free,” Watkins said. “It’s all the guys that I train with every single day, the blood, sweat and tears that they put into training with me and me with them. For me, that swim is going to be a representation of a lot more than just the work I put in, but the work that every single guy put in to get us to that Big East championship and help me get to NCs.”
Watkins qualifying for the NCAA championship comes after a change to the qualification process this season. To qualify for NCAAs, a swimmer must now post a qualifying time and win their event in their conference championship. The new qualification system opens the door to swimmers from teams with less funding and resources than those which are typically represented at NCAAs.
Watkins said he thinks the new change is good for the sport, improving representation.
“I think it’s cool to be able to see some of that mid-major representation and not just look at the top 30 swimmers who are coming from all the Power 4 programs that have all this funding and resources at their disposal,” Watkins said. “To be able to see the kids who are getting to essentially that level of performance without all those things, it will broaden the lens of that elite tier meet.”
For context, the McCarthy pool in Yates is less than twice the size of and less than half as deep — depth increases speed — as the facilities used by large squads, who practice and compete in multi-million dollar, Olympic size natatoriums.
Georgetown Swimming Head Coach John Carroll, who is in his first year leading the program, said he is proud to have Watkins represent the team at the fastest meet in the world.
“Having Owen represent at — this is the fastest meet in the world in a lot of respects, in terms of pure speed, seeing guys go the fastest that they possibly could go in the water, this is the fastest meet in the world — it’s a really cool feeling,” Carroll told The Hoya. “I feel really proud of Owen and feel we can really capitalize on this, and the best is yet to come for him and for the team.”
In reflecting on his Georgetown swimming career, Watkins said he wants to help propel the program to new heights, giving back the support his teammates provided him.
“As the next generation of kids come up to the team, being able to hopefully be a part of their training that can get them to a place like I’ve been able to get to with NCAAs would be super cool,” Watkins said.
“The individual times are one thing, but I think for me, it’s more so seeing where this team can go,” Watkins added. “I want my success to then be able to help lift everyone else up.”
Watkins, who is currently training mainly alone as his teammates return from their post-season breaks, said he feels confident the team’s success will only grow from here.
“I might be the first, but I certainly won’t be the last in terms of kids who are going to come through this program and see that type of success.”
