Boilers Well Represented by Group of 7 at World Championships

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – With Boilermakers competing in as many as 11 events in Singapore, Purdue Swimming & Diving will once again be well represented at the year’s top international showcase – the World Aquatics Championships.

Seven Boilermakers – three swimmers and four divers – are set to compete for country from July 24 through Aug. 3. All six Boilermakers that have already competed for Purdue will be making return trips to World Aquatics’ international championship event. Only incoming freshman Janis Dzirkalis (Latvia) will be making his debut at the World Championships.

Alum David Colutri was the first Boilermaker to compete in Singapore as 27-meter high diving, a finals-only event, was once again split into two days of competition. Colturi was in 10th place among a field of 23 competitors after the first four rounds. He posted the top-scoring dive (97.20) in round 3. The competition concludes at 11 p.m. ET on July 26. Colturi is competing at his sixth World Championships.

INDIVIDUAL EVENT SCHEDULES AT WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
(Country, Seasons at Purdue)
Divers
• Jordan Rzepka (USA, 2022-25) – 10-Meter Diving
• Daryn Wright (USA, 2023-Pr) – 10-Meter Synchro Diving, 3M & 10M Team Diving
• Tyler Wills (USA, 2025-Pr) – Mixed 10-Meter Synchro Diving
• David Colturi (USA, 2008-10) – 27-Meter High Diving
Swimmers
• Nikola Aćin (Serbia, 2019-22) – 50m Backstroke, 4x100m Freestyle Relay
• Jinq En Phee (Malaysia, 2017-20) – 50m & 100m Breaststroke
• Jānis Dzirkalis (Latvia, Incoming Freshman) – 50m & 100m Freestyle

Alum Steven LoBue and diving’s associate head coach, Mark Bradshaw, are also in Singapore serving on USA Diving’s coaching staff. LoBue is the head coach of the American high divers and Bradshaw is a staff assistant for the traditional diving roster. LoBue (2004-07 at Purdue) was a two-time medalist in 27-meter high diving at the World Championships, winning gold in 2017 and silver in 2019.

Aćin, Phee and Wright are all Olympians that continue to be among the top performers for their countries.

EXPERIENCE AT THE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
* – Qualified but did not compete due to illness
• David Colturi – 6th (2015, 2017, 2019, 2023, 2024, 2025)
• Nikola Aćin – 5th (2019, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025)
• Jinq En Phee – 4th (2015, 2019, 2022*, 2024, 2025)
• Jordan Rzepka – 3rd (2022, 2023, 2025)
• Daryn Wright – 3rd (2022, 2024, 2025)
• Tyler Wills – 2nd (2024, 2025)
• Jānis Dzirkalis – 1st

Wright and Wills both teamed up with Bayleigh Cranford (University of Texas) to win 10-meter synchro events at the USA Diving National Championships in May, earning their bids to the World Championships. Since their victory at nationals, Wright and Cranford have medaled twice together this summer, winning gold at the American Cup in June and silver at the Bolzano Diving Meeting in Italy earlier this month. Wright will also be part of the four-diver team set to represent the U.S. in the 3-meter and 10-meter team event Saturday in Singapore.

Aćin will be racing at his fifth consecutive World Championships and Colturi his third straight. Phee and Colturi have been competing at Worlds for the last decade. Rzepka and Wright are both representing the U.S. for a third time in the last four World Championships. However, Rzepka will be competing individually on 10-meter at Worlds for the first time and Wright will be doing the same in 10-meter synchro.

Aćin remains Purdue’s program record holder in the 100-yard freestyle as well as four relays. At the Banja Luke Open in Bosnia and Herzegovina in May, he set a Serbia record in the 50-meter backstroke (25.51) and it was that time that earned him an individual bid to the World Championships. He remains part of Serbia’s 4x100 free relay team, the event in which he’s a two-time Olympian.

Phee continues to rank No. 2 at Purdue in the 100-yard breaststroke and helped the Boilermakers set team records in both medley relays in 2019 that still stand. She also raced at the World Aquatics Swimming Championships (25m) in December, a short-course meet that also featured Purdue’s Nathaniel Thomas (Jamaica) and Matheo Mateos (Paraguay).

Dzirkalis represented Latvia in the 50- and 100-meter freestyle earlier this summer at the LEN U23 European Championships in Slovakia. He swept those same races and set a Latvian national record in the 50 at the Baltic States Championships in March.

World Aquatics opted to hold a World Championships in February 2024. The postponement of the 2020 Olympic Games until the summer of 2021 led to multiple date changes for Worlds from 2021-24. The World Aquatics Championships had been a biennial international showcase held in odd-numbered years from 2001-19, debuting in 1973.

This year is officially the 22nd edition of the World Aquatics Championships. Singapore is the first-ever city in Southeast Asia to host it. Budapest is slated to host again in 2027 after also serving as the host city in 2017 and 2022.