44-Point Big Ten Scorer Colin McDermott Will Return for 5th Year at Ohio State

Ohio State swimmer Colin McDermott has confirmed to SwimSwam that he intends to use his 5th year of eligibility in NCAA swimming next season.

The NCAA has issued a waiver that awards all athletes who competed in the 2020-2021 collegiate season an extra year of eligibility because of the complications of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I’ll never have an opportunity to be part of a team like this again,” McDermott said. “I have only been swimming since my junior year of high school and I still love it.”

McDermott scored 44 individual points at the Big Ten Championships last season, winning the B Finals in both the 100 and 200 yard backstrokes. That was part of a 3rd-place effort of 1,322 points for the Buckeyes, just behind Indiana (1,357) and Michigan (1,401).

He also swam the leadoff leg on the team’s 200 medley relay and the 3rd leg of their 200 free relay, getting the backstroke nod in the former ahead of Hunter Armstrong, who wound up making the U.S. Olympic Team this summer. McDermott’s backstroke split of 21.25 leading off that relay was the second-fastest in the field.

He wound up racing at the NCAA Championship meet as well, where his individual placements were 20th in the 100 back (46.30), 27th in the 200 back (1:42.35), and 49th in the 50 free (20.23). He also swam a leg on Ohio State’s 17th-place 200 free relay.

Ohio State’s 200 medley relay finished 4th at NCAAs, this time with Armstrong on the leadoff in 20.75.

He is the first Ohio State swimmer, male or female, to publicly reveal their intention to return for a 5th year of eligibility.

McDermott was a late-arriver to swimming, only picking up the sport seriously as a junior in high school. A local product, as a high school sophomore his best times were 24.36 in the 50 free and 1:03.72 in the 100 back. By the time he finished high school, those times were down to 21.04 and 50.91. While still not quite Big Ten caliber times, then-Ohio State coach Bill Wadley saw the potential of a late bloomer and recruited him anyway.

Since arriving in the fall of 2017, he’s become one of the team’s top backstrokers in the pool, and has become a high performer in the classroom too, earning Academic All-Big Ten, Ohio State Scholar-Athlete, and CSCAA Scholar All-America honors.

When McDermott came to Ohio State, he was interested in medicine, but has since landed on a degree in Finance. He has one semester remaining anyway, so calls returning for an extra year a “win-win.” As a freshman, he had dreams of working in an emergency room, but those dreams have since shifted to a different high-intensity, fast-paced industry: day-trading.

McDermott currently runs an online server on the platform Discord where he teaches people how to daytrade options derivatives and equities. He says that he hopes to build a career out of day trading after completing his career at Ohio State.