Cal Poly Swimming and Diving has had a rollercoaster of a season this year.
Less than three weeks before their season opener, athletes were informed that Cal Poly had placed head coach Phil Yoshida on indefinite leave after allegations of verbal and emotional abuse allegations were made throughout his tenure.
Tom Milich, the longtime Cal Poly swim and dive coach who retired from the position in 2020, got the last-minute call to fill in as an interim coach for the season.
“The first time that I went into the meeting was pretty much the first time I met any of them,” Milich said. “I really didn’t have any expectations coming in.”
In 2020, Milich finished what he thought would be his 14th and final year in the program. This season, unforeseen circumstances have placed Milich back at the helm, leading what has become a promising team heading into championship play.
“I think it was a pretty unique experience because none of us had had him as a coach,” senior swimmer Kelly McDermott said. “Anytime you have a new coach, there is a little bit of hesitancy to trust. “I think he’s kind of shown us that he has had fast swimmers in the past, and he’s going to keep having fast swimmers. And if we trust his training and just put in the work, we’re going to do well.”
Building trust and camaraderie within a program takes time, and Milich emphasized from the beginning how he knew that there would be a buy-in period as the team transitioned from one coach to the other.
“We did a lot of volume early,” Millich said. “I think they all thought I was crazy. But like I said, you know, they bought in and, and they’ve done a good job. So I really can’t complain. I’ve enjoyed it, it’s been fun.”
Despite the late start, Milich was determined to make a personal impact on the team, and his previous experience in the program gave hope to many athletes, including sophomore swimmer Drew Huston.
“I think that Coach Tom, I mean, he has experience with the program. Obviously, he’s been here before. So him coming back wasn’t too big of a change, and I think everyone embraced it. And we got some good results this year,” Huston said.
On the men’s side, the team’s experience and raw talent served to be enough to overcome any off-the-field challenges, highlighted by back-to-back victories at the CSUB Sprint Classic and Roadrunner Invitational.
The women’s team, on the other hand, had a number of question marks attached to their performance early on in the year. They dropped back-to-back meets against San Diego State, the second being a 128-71 meltdown that did not bode well for the rest of their season.
They did show flashes of potential throughout early action, including a 148-58 win against Fresno Pacific and third-place finishes at the CSUB Sprint Classic and Roadrunner Invitational.
For Milich, the turning point seemed to come after winter training when he was able to adjust the team’s training volume.
Up to that point, he had been working them harder than they were accustomed to in an effort to get the team into better shape before the most important part of the season arrived.
“I think that winter training was really productive,” Hutson said. “We had to move out into a hotel, but I think even with that change, we really got a lot of good work in and over the holidays. We stayed an extra week and came back a week early. Got a lot of good training in.”
The shift got results in the box scores as well, culminating in two straight dual meet victories to end the regular season against UC Santa Cruz and the University of the Pacific.
According to Milich, nearly half of the team achieved lifetime-best times within the last few weeks of the season, something almost unheard of happening in competition.
“Because they swam so well through the season, that really sets them up to swim well in the conference because they all have so much positive energy right now after swimming really well at Santa Cruz and [the University of Pacific],” Milich said.
Huston, one of the most promising younger swimmers on the squad, earned MPSF Male Athlete of the Week honors in January after winning both the 100 and 200 yard backstroke against UC Santa Cruz. He broke both personal and school records multiple times over the course of the season.
Senior diver Briana Medveki capped an impressive Cal Poly career with a women’s three-meter dive score of 304.05 against Pacific, the second-best in school history. She holds the second-best scores in both the three-meter and one-meter dives.
Senior swimmer Sean Keegan was another bright spot for the men’s team for the year, winning the 200 IM with a personal time of 1:48.95 to end the regular season.
Looking ahead, the team is more motivated than ever to perform well in the championships.
“In the past few weeks and months, I’ve noticed that everyone is just really excited to go fast. Even more so than in past years. And I think everyone really trusts the training that we have, and trusts that we will go fast and just see how well we can do,” McDermott said.
They will look to outdo last year’s strong performance in the championships, where four different athletes landed top-ten finishes, two of them within the top five.
The MPSF Diving Championships began on Feb. 11 in Mission Viejo and will run through Feb. 14.
The MPSF Swimming Championships are set to take place from Feb. 21-24, in St. George, Utah.
Updates from MPSF Diving Championship
Freshman Justin Dolezal earned a podium finish on Monday, Feb. 12 at the MPSF Diving Championships. His third-place finish in the men’s 1-meter dive is the highest finish in program history.
On the third day of the event, freshman Madden Saini secured a fourth-place finish in the men’s 3-meter dive.
For more information, visit GoPoly.com.