Despite having some killer individual moments so far this season — records broken, personal records reset — USC men’s swim and dive has had a rough go at it as a team. 

The No. 15 Trojans (4-5, 0-1 Big Ten) couldn’t find a groove, winning several events in a row one moment and not breaking the top three the next.

But, better late than never, USC stepped into shape against the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (1-6) for a staggering 200-61 home win Friday, in the Trojans’ final dual meet before heading to the Big Ten Conference Championships in late February. In their best and final regular-season performance, the men finally found their rhythm as a team across the entire medley.

“I think we have a really good camaraderie; I think they really care a lot about each other,” Head Coach Lea Maurer said in a post-meet interview with the Daily Trojan. “They’re problem solvers, and they’re figuring out how we go faster, and they also have a really good time doing it.”

The good times started with a six-event win streak when USC’s A-team stole the lead in a competitive 200 medley relay, though the B-team refused to be ignored with a third-place finish around a second and a half behind UNLV’s A-team.

Individually, however, sophomore Thomas Olsen was the beating heart of USC’s winning momentum and freestyle domination, with some killer inertia of his own as the winner of both distance events and the first individual event of the day, the 1000 free. 

Olsen made use of the ample time allowed within the 1000 free’s 40 laps, letting his pacing do the talking for an 8-second gap between himself and second place; he also averaged a 26.68 split in the 500. Nevertheless, junior Ian Pickles put up a good fight in the 500 for a breakneck second-place finish, out-touching UNLV junior Ambrus Barcsak by 0.31 seconds.

Pickles’ name came back as the third place of a 1-2-3 Trojan sweep in the 200 free, helmed by graduate student Vaggelis Makrygiannis in the first of his two wins of the day and graduate student Filip Mujan in a close second-place finish. 

While Makrygiannis later took his second mid-distance win in the 200 backstroke, Michal Chmielewski locked down the sprint sector of the backstroke in a 46.43 race that outpaced everyone in the event by at least a second.

The only Trojan loss of the day in the 50 free — thanks to a 19.80 first-place finish from Rebel graduate student Bryson Huey — didn’t linger too long, as Trojan sophomore Oliver Sogaard-Andersen swam a sub-20 of his own for second place.

However, Sogaard-Andersen’s business wasn’t finished. Immediately after the 50 was over, the sophomore exited the pool, took a breather and dove right back in for a 42.90 race — earning him first place in the 100 free and kickstarting a seven-event win streak that would last until the end of the meet.

“My 100 freestyle today was really good,” Sogaard-Andersen said in a post-meet interview with the Daily Trojan. “My back end, especially, holding on to the technique, not doing breaths on the first stroke or going out from a turn — it’s the small details we’re working on right now.”

Beyond the Trojans’ exorbitant success in the freestyle, breaststroke was a silent killer against the Rebels, thanks to sophomore Junhao Chan’s wins in both breaststroke events. USC earned two 1-2-3-4 sweeps in the 100 and 200, with Chan swimming NCAA Championship-qualifying times in addition to his wins, as well as junior Keller Morgan and freshman Stuart Timmerman appearing in both top-four shutouts. 

Sophomores Charlie Bufton and Diego Balbi kept the podiums of the butterfly events populated, with a mere 0.08-second gap between them in the 200 fly for a 1-2 finish, respectively. Chmielewski took first in the 100 in a swim nearing his personal record, but Balbi returned for another silver to round out Trojan domination in the top three across the medley. 

After being the bridesmaid and never the bride throughout several of the Trojans’ dual meets, Mujan finally got his moment in the spotlight as the lead in a top-three Trojan sweep in the 200 individual medley, narrowly beating sophomore Nathan Wu by 0.18 seconds.

Though the Trojans’ win was all but guaranteed, the final event of the meet wasn’t spotless. USC did secure its final win of the day in the 400 medley relay, but only because its B-team picked up the slack after the A-team was disqualified on an early start. 

“We got a disqualification for a fast start today, which was unfortunate,” Sogaard-Andersen said. “But pushing [relays] at the dual meets is important, so we can push it at the Big Ten meets.”

The Trojans’ relays and individual events will be put to the test at the Big Ten Conference Championships Feb. 25 to 28 in Madison, Wisconsin, where they will look to grab some last-second qualifying times for the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships in late March in Atlanta, Georgia.

“They are going to get a lot of rest,” Maurer said. “Little details sharpened up, some breakouts, but I think we’re in a good place, and now we just got to let their talent show.”