Janet Briggs

Janet Briggs

With a NESCAC title, an individual top-five finish, three relay top-five finishes, two school records and two personal best times, swimmer Jack Tran ’26 shined at the men’s swimming and diving NESCAC championships last weekend.

At the championships hosted at Middlebury College, Tran impressed with his sprint fly prowess. He won the 50 fly with a personal best, school record and Middlebury pool record of 21.67 seconds and finished 12th in the 100 fly with another personal best of 49.48. In the medley relays, he went 20.91 in the 50 fly leg of the 200 medley relay and 48.94 in the 100 fly leg of the 400 medley relay.

“I’ve focused a lot on fly events in the last years. I was a backstroker in high school, but I’ve kind of turned a new leaf this year, swimming more butterfly and freestyle. [I’ve] definitely seen a lot of improvement in those events, too,” Tran said.

This meet was the first meet since Tran was 13 years old that he did not swim the 100 backstroke. Since coming to the College, Tran has focused on improving his sprint fly and freestyle on top of his backstroke. However, he has never truly escaped backstroke, and this meet was no different. He swam the 50 backstroke at the NESCAC championship, placing fourth with a time of 22.62, a season-best and only .07 seconds off his personal best from last year’s conference championship.

This successful meet came after a season of getting back into swimming at Bowdoin. After spending the fall semester abroad, Tran had to reacclimate to the team environment.

“It was really nice coming back and having everyone welcome me back. All the stuff we did over J-break made me really feel like I was a part of the team again,” Tran said. “It was hard at first. I was really out of shape, but we swam a lot during J-break. We didn’t go on a training trip either, so we were just practicing twice a day for three weeks. I think that, along with the transition from the team, helped me get back.”

The Friday of the NESCAC meet was packed for Tran, as he faced four races in the evening session. He started with the 200 free relay, where he anchored, splitting the fastest time at 20.04 of the relay comprised of Raphael Grand’Pierre ’27, Penn Lee ’25 and Alexandre Grand’Pierre ’25. He then had both the 50 fly and 50 backstroke before the 400 medley relay.

“It’s nice because I’ve swam those four events on Friday night the last four years, so I kind of knew what to expect. You just have to take things one race at a time. Especially when I get tired, I think about how happy I am to be swimming with the team again,” Tran said. “It was really exciting for me this year because I was swimming butterfly in the relay instead of backstroke, which I normally swim. So, just being able to not have to think about swimming 100 back[stroke] was really nice for me too.”

The rest of the meet was more spread out for Tran, with the 100 fly on Saturday and the 400 freestyle relay on Sunday. Tran anchored the 400 free relay with a 44.89. The fastest split of the relay was composed of Raphael Grand’Pierre, Lee and Henry Peters ’28.

“I was really satisfied. I wasn’t really expecting to swim as well as I did. My goal was to just have fun with the team and be there and support all the guys. And if I swim well, I swim well, and if not, I am just there to support, so that was the mindset going in. I was really happy with how it came out,” Tran said.

While Tran was successful individually at this meet, he will not be competing at the NCAA championship, as it does not have 50 yard events outside of freestyle. However, the three relays he was on technically got NCAA ‘B’ cuts, which did not secure him a spot in the championship. Each year, there is an invited time standard that falls between the ‘B’ and ‘A’ cuts that get to go to the meet. Each of the relays Tran was on fall no more than two seconds over the 2025 invited time cut standard, with the closest being .68 seconds over in the 200 free relay.

Despite not making championship cuts, Tran is looking forward to what next year’s season brings and has hopes to qualify for nationals next year.

“I’m excited to have one last full season with everyone. It would be nice to go to nationals next year with the sprint guys,” Tran said. “I think we’re going to have a good freestyle relay next year.”