All-Delco Boys Swimming: Despite injury adversity, Brian Brennan made good on his promise
It was a swimming lifetime ago, yet it still wasn’t Brian Brennan’s first Easterns experience.
Back in 2017, Brennan was a stringy, upstart freshman. He was already a key scorer in Haverford School’s lineup for the Eastern Interscholastic Championships and delivered on that promise. He finished fourth in the 200 individual medley with a time of 1:50.83, just a tenth of a second behind then-sophomore Ivan Puskovitch of Episcopal Academy, who’d become the Daily Times Swimmer of the Year two years later. Brennan’s time, as a freshman, was within 0.7 seconds of the fastest high school time put down by Brendan Hansen, then the Delco record-holder for more than a decade and a half. To back up his distance bona fides, Brennan finished eighth in the 500 free, dipping into the 4:35s.
That Easterns proved to be the last meet for that version of Brennan as a swimmer. Yet what emerged in the wake of a substantial switch in specialty was somehow just as illustrious.
Most of the summer going into Brennan’s sophomore season was compromised by a biceps tendon injury. With his shoulder repaired, he was limited to kicking drills, not getting back to pulling until well into the high school season that fall.
The swimmer that materialized from that injury crucible was still dominant, just one that specialized in the two shortest events in the high school slate instead of the two longest. Exit the rangy distance swimmer. Enter the chiseled, powerful sprinter.
“The only thing I could really swim at first was the 50 free,” Brennan said. “I kind of built my way up from there, but that ended up becoming my best event, which is kind of cool.”
Across both iterations of his high school career, Brennan’s excellence remained undimmed. He finaled in all 10 of his individual events at Easterns from eighth grade on. He’s helped the Fords to a slew of relay medals and was a pivotal piece in the program’s first ever Easterns title in 2018.
For the fourth time, Brennan is an All-Delco. For the first time, he’s the Daily Times Boys Swimmer of the Year.
Brennan highlights a decisively Inter-Ac-flavored All-Delco team, joined by teammate Antonio Octaviano and the Episcopal Academy troika of Sam Wesley, Cole Whitsett and Jack Christian (with three Fords and a Churchman on the second team). Ridley’s Alex Boeckx and Penncrest diver Kieran Clark represent the Central League.
The senior class is exceptionally dominant, monopolizing all but the spot earned by junior Christian. Octaviano and Whitsett are on the team for a third time each, while Wesley and Boeckx make their second appearances. The All-Delco team is selected in consultation with area coaches.
• • •
The 2017 meet wasn’t Brennan’s first Easterns. His stint in the meet dates back to its former home at La Salle, before it moved to the swankier waters of Franklin & Marshall. Back in 2015, Brennan, a mere seventh-grader, scored in the IM and 100 backstroke. Coach Sean Hansen entrusted Brennan with the anchor leg of the 200 free relay that finished fifth. Before he’d reached high school, Brennan was a double A finalist.
READ: All-Delco Boys Swimming: Episcopal Academy’s special generation leads the way
The 2016 meet held a special place for Brennan. The Devon native watched Alex Boratto, then a sophomore, blossom into the star that had been foretold for years. It resulted in Boratto’s first of three consecutive Daily Times Boys Swimmer of the Year Awards.
Having followed the same path as the Stanford swimmer, Brennan knew expectations for him were similar.
“I always looked up to Alex Boratto a lot,” Brennan said. “He kind of did the same sort of thing I did, starting at Easterns in seventh grade and starting to score points right away. I remember seeing him win in finals when I was in seventh grade and seeing how excited the coaches were and the whole team was and what the atmosphere was when he was up there placing, in lane four, wining for our school. That was something I wanted to do for myself, and it’s something that motivated me to be the best I could be.”
READ: The full list of boys swimming All-Delco honorees
Injury altered Brennan’s trajectory, but it didn’t flatten. He nabbed what would be his only individual Easterns title in 2018, the sophomore winning the 100 free in 44.96 seconds. He was more than a half-second faster this year (44.40) but behind Pennington School’s David Curtiss, a classmate who has exploded into one of the most talented sprinters in high school history.
Brennan finished second in the 50 each of the last two years and was second in the 100 free as a senior. He has three bronze medals from Easterns. Brennan added gold in the 400 free relay in 2018, Boratto’s storybook anchor leg clinching the Fords’ team title. He’s been part of six Delco record-setting relays, including the existing 200 free mark from 2018, and has consistently put up All-American times, including 20.09 this season in the 50.
Brennan’s next swimming chapter might tap into his first. He’ll attend the University of Virginia, part of a special Cavaliers Class of 2024 that includes State College’s Matt Brownstead, who went 19.24 to set a national record in the 50 at the PIAA Championships and split 18.76 off the 200 free relay, and in-state sprinter Jack Moore. Around that talent, Brennan could deploy the 200 free, a more valuable event at the college level thanks to the 800 free relay and an event Brennan still sees as a specialty.
READ: Delco Swimming: Boys Top Times
As he looks ahead to Charlottesville, he’s extremely excited to help grow a program, something he’s proven with the Fords to be quite good at.
“It’s definitely one of the reasons why I chose UVA, the fact that they’re an up-and-coming team,” Brennan said. “And the girls team is obviously already amazing and they’re going to get better with the class that’s coming in. But the guys, I feel like we have potential that hasn’t even been realized yet. And as our class and the class below us starts graduating and going into the program, it’s going to feel really exciting. I think it’s going to feel like how it did at Haverford with Easterns. I think there’s going to be a connection there.”
