How Auburn freshman Daniel Krichevsky is making waves in the 200 free — and why he has faster swims still to come
Krichevsky, from Israel, has his sights set on the school record time for the 200 freestyle and his home country's national record. Here's a look at why he has the upside ahead of him to get there.
Daniel Krichevsky’s first visit to Auburn ended with a bittersweet feeling.
He had come around the globe from his home in Israel, being recruited first on Zoom calls before finally making the trip, and when he stepped foot on campus, he loved it. He committed, shook hands with the coaches, and they laid out his plan to come back and enroll. When it was time for his visit to end, that’s when he got that feeling:
Bitter, because he had to leave and already missed the school;
Sweet, because the logic in his mind told him that, if he already missed the school, that must mean that he’d picked the right place.
“When I came here, I loved it. I committed on the spot,” Krichevsky said in his own words. “And then when I left Auburn, I already missed it, so I was like, ‘OK, I made the right decision,’” he smiled.
Auburn head swimming coach Ryan Wochomurka said Krichevsky uses logic like that a lot in his swimming: “He’s got an engineering brain,” Wochomurka said. “He thinks a lot about his leverage points, he thinks about his cycles per minute.” It’s part of what has made Krichevsky a standout already as a freshman, particularly in the 200-yard freestyle.
He won the 200 free in 1:33.10 at Auburn’s dual with Florida on Jan. 16. He currently holds the nation’s 12th-best time in the 200 free, with a personal best this season of 1:32.18 — with every college swimmer’s goal ultimately being to make it into the top eight at the end and be in the championship final at the NCAA Championships in March.
And he still has room left to improve:
“I think this is the first meet where I actually felt good in yards,” Krichevsky said, stepping out of the cool-down pool after the meet with Florida. “Usually I feel kind of weird — I’m short to the walls, or too long to the walls. But maybe having it here at home where I train every day, I felt really good for the first time in yards.”
Krichevsky’s journey to Auburn
Krichevsky isn’t your typical freshman.