SwimSwam sat down with the coaches behind the upcoming Dual Meet Tournament that will take place at Georgia Tech on October 17-18, 2025. Chico Rego of George Washington, Iago Moussalem of Georgia Tech, Cauli Bedran of Wisconsin (who is not participating in the tournament), and Steve Barnes of Florida State all contributed to this discussion and laid out how this event came together, what it will look like, and how they hope it will impact college swimming moving forward.

The format of the Tournament is as follows:

*All Duals will be 90 minutes with a 10-minute “halftime” break*

• On Friday Morning (Oct 17), there will be four duals (Quarter finals): Two run simultaneously at 7:30am, then two more at 10am
• On Friday Afternoon, there will be another four duals (Semi Finals + Losers Bracket): Two run at 3pm (Winners and Losers from 7:30am Matchups), then two more at 6pm (Winners and Losers from 10am Matchups)
• On Saturday Morning (Oct 18), there will be three duals for the six teams that aren’t in the final
• On Saturday Afternoon at 2pm, there will be the Dual Meet Final

Diving will take place intermittently and will be more of a team event (more to come on that in the future). Roster limits per meet will be 15 swimmers and 2 divers per gender. Each swimmer can only swim 3 times per meet. Each team will have 4 athletes per individual swimming event and 2 relay teams per relay event.

Event Lineups for each meet are as follows:

• First half: Relay #1, (100 Free/Back & 200 Fly/Breast) OR (100 Fly/Breast & 200 Free/Back)
• Second half: 500 Free, 200 IM, 50 Free, Relay #2

The event lineup for each dual will be decided before the dual.

Scoring will be combined for genders. Each dual will have a total of 790 points (meaning the first team to reach 396 wins). Scoring is as follows:

• For diving/relays, 1st place is 22, 2nd place is 8, 3rd place is 4, and 4th place is 0.
• For Individual Swimming events, 1st place is 16, 2nd place is 6, 3rd place is 5, 4th place is 4, 5th place is 3, 6th place is 2, 7th place is 1, and 8th place is 0.

In the SwimSwam Podcast dive deeper into the sport you love with insider conversations about swimming. Hosted by Coleman Hodges and Gold Medal Mel Stewart, SwimSwam welcomes both the biggest names in swimming that you already know, and rising stars that you need to get to know, as we break down the past, present, and future of aquatic sports.

Music: Otis McDonald
www.otismacmusic.com

A new sports documentary titled Zlatá cesta (The Path to Gold), directed by Petr Větrovský, opened in Czech cinemas on Thursday, offering fans an intimate behind-the-scenes look at the Czech national hockey team’s surprise gold medal victory at the 2024 IIHF World Championships.

The film traces the team’s journey from a shaky pre-tournament buildup to its dramatic win on home ice in Prague. Despite low expectations from fans and commentators, head coach Radim Rulík’s squad defied the odds to capture gold—Czechia’s first world title since 2010, and the first won at home since 1985.

“The things that didn’t come together for the golden generation in 2004, or again in 2015, somehow clicked for this underestimated group,” a voiceover in the film notes.

Structured around exclusive interviews and raw footage, Zlatá cesta features insights from key figures including Rulík, veteran captain Roman Červenka, and top goalie Lukáš Dostál. The film shows the emotional and physical toll of the tournament, highlighting not just athletic performance, but also the behind-the-scenes strain—jetlag, injuries, public pressure, and internal doubts.

Rulík’s unconventional strategy of testing a wide roster of players in the run-up to the championship, despite repeated pre-tournament losses, is framed as a methodical process aimed at clarity and fairness. “I wanted to be sure why each player deserved their spot,” he reflects in the film.

Yet the coach also admits he underestimated the emotional toll. “I thought I’d announce the lineup and that would be it. I wasn’t ready for the backlash,” he says, referencing the media scrutiny he faced.

Červenka adds a voice of calm in the storm, emphasizing the team’s need to shut out external noise and focus internally. Together, he and Rulík guide viewers through what Větrovský presents as both a sports triumph and a cultural moment. “Hockey in this country is something unique. For a brief moment, it unites the nation,” the director said in a statement.

The documentary also covers the physical limits pushed by players, including NHL stars like David Pastrňák, who arrived to the tournament visibly fatigued days after playing in the NHL playoffs. Rulík notes how even minor time differences affect “already exhausted bodies.”

Větrovský, known for documentaries on athletes Jan Koller and Gabriela Soukalová, once again blends action with emotion in the 101-minute film. Zlatá cesta is now screening in Czech cinemas courtesy distributor Bontonfilm ahead of this year’s IIHF World Championship, which begins May 9 in Sweden and Denmark. An English-subtitled version is not currently available.

The buzz of excitement is ramping up into a full roar as EA Sports F1 25 gets ready for lights out on May 30. And with it comes a whole paddock of improvements, tweaks, and new features to ensure unfamiliar racers and track veterans alike all feel at home. I recently had an opportunity to talk with the developers at EA Codemasters about the upcoming racing game’s newest gameplay features.

“We’re never short of feedback,” says EA Codemasters’ Creative Director Gavin Cooper. “We listen to the community and that informs a lot of our features this year.”

The wealth of voices offering reactions over the figurative team radio don’t just include the official forums and other close sources, but also Esports drivers and content creators who had the opportunity to get their hands on  F1 25, early during its development.

The result is a game which has aimed to sharpen up everything from its car handling, to a glossier TV-style presentation, and enhanced real driver voice over. “Hearing the real drivers’ voices as you’re playing really brings a degree of authenticity to the experience,” says Gavin. “We’ve got almost double the number of voice lines in F1 25 that we had in F1 24, and you experience them in more context, too.” So not only can you hear directly from some of the principals, you’ll also have back and forth exchanges between the real drivers and the in-game race engineers, offering the sort of camaraderie – and tension – of the real thing.

Gavin is also keen to point out that for fans who were frustrated with the samey engine noises in the comprehensive My Team mode, that bugbear has been addressed. “You’re now able to attach the correct audio to the different engine suppliers – so depending on which supplier you pick, it’ll actually make your car sound different. That’s something I know people have wanted for a long time.”

Your very own dream team

On the subject of My Team, the popular mode has received a significant boost, designed to get fans’ hearts racing. This time, rather than being the owner-driver, you’re now the team owner having to manage a pair of drivers. “We know being an owner-driver is not authentic to the sport,” says Gavin. “But now having to manage two drivers opens up a lot of interesting decisions for the player. Previously whenever we’ve asked you to prioritise one driver over the other it wasn’t an interesting choice – you’d naturally choose yourself. Now you have to think about who’s the most important in things like contract negotiation and upgrades.”

While you’ll choose who to control on the track itself during race weekends, managing two different personalities and egos offers more complexity to juggle, on top of running the detailed Engineering, Personnel and Corporate facilities, which can also spill out into how your team, competitors and prospects perceive you. Even when added to the expanded R&D and sponsor systems which interact with perks, upgrades, and relationships, and increased control over Driver Icons to allow AI teams to recruit iconic drivers, it’s still only a selection of the additions you’ll have at your racing gloved fingertips.

Braking Point drives the narrative experience forward

Fans of Braking Point, F1’s massive story mode series, aren’t left on the starting grid, either. “We’re always looking for ways to increase the players’ impact on the narrative,” says Gavin. So now when key events happen, you have the option to choose from the two Konnersport drivers available in that scenario, resulting in various ripple effects which can not only impact some of the race objectives, but also the end of the story itself. Implementing this expansion and various branching narratives was no small task for the development team.

“We’re keeping track of the core narrative, which is supported by various other threads, subplots, and other little storylines that we deliver through the secondary narrative, like phone calls, social media and news posts,” explains Gavin. “And those different threads might be more relevant to one driver but can come back and intersect with the main story. So it’s making sure you’re still getting something that feels specific to that driver and the storylines that you’re engaging with, and still have a coherent overall narrative that everyone can enjoy. It’s difficult, but it’s been a really fun process as well.”

And when you finish Braking Point? Well, there’s a special bonus that will allow you to bring your Konnersport team directly into the Career Mode, for the first time in the series. It’s just one of the many ways F1 25 has stepped up a gear to give you a variety of flexibility in how you want to race.

“There’s a whole matrix of possibilities you can pursue in the game,” says Gavin.  “You can play as an official driver, or a custom driver, but there’s also kinda an 11th team, via Konnersport or Apex. Do you still play as a custom driver on an official team, or go for an official driver? And that’s all before you even get into bringing Icons into My Team, too.”

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Immersive details at every turn

As in-depth as many of the existing modes go, the development team haven’t forgotten about the fun little extras, either. In-depth customisation means a better decal editor, there’s the ability to change driver number fonts and colours, and LIDAR scanning has provided millions of referenced data points for a more authentic look and feel for five tracks (Bahrain, Miami, Melbourne, Suzuka, and Imola), including safety barriers, fan areas, and even accurate vegetation.

And now you can also race around Silverstone, Zandvoort, and Austria in reverse track layouts in Grand Prix, Time Trial, Multiplayer, and from the second season of the Career modes. “It’s the feature that seems to catch people out the most,” smiles Gavin. “You think you know those courses, but when you actually get to play them they really do feel like brand new tracks. There’s a lot of nuance, you’re not just driving them backwards. It really spins people’s heads out a little, having a very different experience in a familiar location.”

With F1 25 taking pole year in, year out, it’s no secret that creating these games is arguably as complicated as mapping out a real-life racing campaign, with the development team split into those who work specifically on the ‘even’ year iterations of the series, and those who work on the ‘odd’ years. “We started a central team that works on the stuff that we do every year, so things like handling, AI and so on,” Gavin explains. “They still work on yearly cadence. But having that split team model is really valuable, it lets us set up all of these big features every year. It’s tricky because we overlap, and are essentially working in the game’s build at the same time, but fundamentally a lot of it comes down to good process, good communication, and the right people in the right place.”

It’s a method which, like the best F1 teams, relies on the keenest of teamwork – but comes together every year when it matters. You’ll be able to experience it all for yourself when EA Sports F1 25 launches on PS5 on May 30.

The Lindbergh High School girls soccer team notched a statement win on April 14, shutting out Union 2-0 behind a dominant performance from sophomore standout Kasey Patten. Patten netted both goals—one in each half—leading the Flyers to victory. She now has three goals on the season for Lindbergh. 

The Flyers’ defense also shone against Union, with Mackenzie Bieg and Josie Watz combining efforts in goal to secure the clean sheet. It was the third win of the season for Lindbergh, who had previously defeated Seckman and Jackson on March 25 and April 7, respectively.

With the win against Union, Lindbergh improved to 3-5-1 on the year. As of April 24, Lindbergh sits at 4-8-1.

Despite a losing record, the Flyers have been competitive in a challenging early-season schedule, suffering narrow losses to strong programs like Cor Jesu, losing 1-2, and Rockwood Summit, losing 0-1. Though the opposition has been stiff, Lindbergh head coach Jake Pittroff emphasized the importance of testing his squad against elite competition.

“We’ve been competitive and played in some really tough games. I think we are starting to put things together and play better.” Pittroff said. “I’m a big believer that a team has to be built by playing the best. In order to be the best, you have to beat the best.”

With the postseason looming, Pittroff hopes the rigorous schedule will pay dividends.

“I think the tough schedule helps us,” Pittroff said. “We are getting better technically and tactically. I also think our decision-making has improved, especially defensively.”

The team is led by captain Lauren Smith, who will continue her soccer career at Spring Hill College, a Division II school. Senior Kate Warren also provides leadership and experience, while Danni Cotter, who has tallied four points this season, is set to play at UMSL. Patten, as well as Gabby Moran, who has six points on the season, have emerged as key offensive catalysts.

With a daunting Class 4 district on the horizon, Pittroff remains realistic about the challenges ahead.

“It’s just a powerhouse,” Pittroff said. “It’s one tough district.”

As the Flyers continue to build both their tactical foundation and mental grit, Pittroff is optimistic about where this journey could lead.

“It’s a journey of learning,” he said. “The girls are building aptitude and mind skills, which are life skills they will need to be successful.”

The Flyers faced Notre Dame on April 16, winning 1-0. They next played Webster Groves on April 18, St. Joseph’s on April 21 and Layayette on April 22, losing the three games 0-3, 1-4 and 0-5, respectively.

Lindbergh will face Ursuline Academy on April 25 at 5:30 p.m.