Matt Hutchins has traveled a bit longer than most to be a Badger—8,489 miles to be exact. The junior swimmer from Christchurch, New Zealand has made the most of his journey that’s taken him across the Pacific Ocean and 66 lengths across the pool every time he swims the 1,650-yard freestyle; an event in which he is currently ranked No. 1 in the country.
In August 2013, when fellow juniors Cannon Clifton and Sean Maloney were moving into their dorms, Hutchins was back in New Zealand trying to figure out if and where he would be attending school and swimming in the United States.
“It was kind of a pretty rushed decision, to be honest,” Hutchins said. “I was kind of looking around, but then Wisconsin got in touch with me. I got this email that said ‘Greetings from Wisconsin!’ and my first thought was ‘where is Wisconsin?’ I honestly had no clue where it was; I just knew New York, California and Texas.”
Coming to a school and a state he didn’t know much about didn’t really phase Hutchins—he was actually more worried about getting his visa and passport in on time so he would be able to begin school after the semester break in January.
“I actually finally got accepted and enrolled in school two days before my flight left New Zealand,” explained Hutchins. “I got in on a Monday and my flight left that Wednesday.”
Once he was able to move into the house he shared that year with some of the older team members—a spot in a dorm was not available at the time—Hutchins had to almost immediately turn around and travel to Hawaii for the team’s annual winter training trip. It was there where his journey as a Badger really started, and where he met Clifton and Maloney, the two teammates who would eventually become his roommates and best friends.
“Freshman year, we spent a lot of time traveling and rooming together,” Clifton said. “[NCAAs that year] was where we really bonded.”
That bond was on full display when the three sat down for an interview recently; constantly laughing, they made inside jokes and finished each others’ sentences. Despite their not-so-subtle jabs at each other (for instance, Maloney thinks Hutchins should work as hard at keeping their shared room clean as he works to get top times in the pool), the three all agree that the team dynamic and work ethic would not be the same if the Kiwi standout had not gotten his acceptance notification that Monday morning in December 2013.
“In practice, I’m probably the closest to Matt [times wise] out of the distance swimmers,” Maloney said. “I’m nowhere near him, so it’s like there he is lapping everyone and I’m just struggling; then you get to racing other teams and I’ll be coming in second or third and stuff but he’s just a really long way ahead.”
Clifton, a sprinter, agrees. “He’s a really good training partner and he pushes everyone to go faster,” he said.
Hutchins hasn’t just had success fitting in with his team and training, he’s also surprising even himself with his times in the distance freestyle events this season. The defending Big Ten champion in the 500-yard freestyle, he has not placed below third in that event this season, and is looking for a repeat. What’s even more amazing is that he’s posted the fastest time in the nation in the 1650-yard freestyle, an event he came in 10th at nationals last year. Hutchins has rewritten the school record books in the process, posting a time of 14:38.14, which won him the Texas Hall of Fame Invitational in December.
“My mile [1650] time was actually quite surprising at Texas, it was faster than my goal time I had written at the start of the year,” Hutchins said. “I think I’d written a 14:43—it was about four or five seconds slower than what I swam at that meet.”
Hutchins firmly believes he’s capable of more than what he’s already accomplished this season; most importantly, he’s hoping for a spot on the New Zealand Olympic Team that competes in Rio de Janeiro this summer. He’ll have his chance to find out whether he makes the team or not April 5, when he goes to Toronto to compete.
“There was this whole issue with New Zealand trials starting two days after [NCAAs],” Hutchins explained. “New Zealand’s now letting all the U.S.-based swimmers go swim at Canadian trials, which is a week later and a lot closer.”
“[Two hours to Toronto] is a little bit nicer on your body,” Maloney, a native of Canberra, Australia who flies home for the summer with Hutchins, joked.
Hutchins agreed, saying, “23 hours on a plane going home [last summer] was the worst.”
Although he sprinkles his vocabulary with New Zealand slang such as “jandals” (flip-flops) and “trackies” (sweatpants), and special-orders meat pies, a New Zealand fast food staple, to be delivered to his apartment from Los Angeles, Hutchins has made Madison, Wis.—a place he’d never heard of until two years ago—his second home and has taken advantage of everything the school and city has to offer.
“Going to Wisconsin and seeing these students, parents, alum, people from all over the state supporting the Badgers, school spirit’s so high,” Hutchins said.
Hutchins can surely get excited about Badger fans supporting one of their own at Big Tens, NCAAs and the Olympic trials. No matter how long and winding his path was to get to Madison, Badger fans are celebrating his unprecedented success.
