Lou Petto ('94) joined the Greater Somerset County YMCA as the organization's head coach and Director of Competitive Aquatics in April. Two months later, he was helping guide two top young swimmers in Jack Alexy and Matt Fallon to Omaha, Nebraska on the nations greatest stage in the hopes of qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics in July.
 
Alexy made the top-16 in the 100-meter freestyle and Fallon quickly became the dark horse of the week with his performance in the prelims and semifinals where he finished as the top seed in the finals June 17.
 
"I took over this program in April, so I kind of parachuted into a group of very talented swimmers," Petto said. "I'm not by any means taking credit for them as athletes, but this week has been pretty fun. It's been great watching swimmers who came up in our program and developed in our program be able to perform really well in the biggest stage."
 
Fallon's performance quickly became the top headline, as the 18-year-old defied the odds coming from behind to earn the top seed heading into the finals of the 200-meter breaststroke.
 
As Fallon lined up on the block June 16 for a chance to compete for a spot on the United States Olympic swimming team, beside him were two of the best in the world. In lane five was 27-year old Olympic gold medalist Kevin Cordes and in lane three, 26-year-old two-time Pan American Games gold medalist and former USA national team member Will Licon.

Fallon, the youngest of all 16 semifinalists in the event was about to surprise all four million-plus viewers watching the heat.
 
"How does it feel like to be Matt Fallon right now?" asked NBC play-by-play analyst and U.S. Olympic Hall of Famer Rowdy Gaines during the nationally televised broadcast. "At only 18-years old, the only teenager of all 16 swimmers and he's sandwiched between an Olympic gold medalist and Will Licon, one of the best in the world."
 
Fallon was last to touch the wall on the first turn and remained in eighth in the first 100 meters, but quickly made up ground against Licon who was in the lead on the last leg.
 
"He will have to have some kind of second half to duplicate what he did in the prelims," said Gaines circling Fallon's lane on the screen as he began on his last 100 meters of the race.
 
Fallon indeed had some kind of second half. After finishing the first 50 meters at 30.1 seconds, he went out in 1:03.67 and came back in 1:05.24 in his last 100 to go from last to first.
 
"And he's come all the way back here. Fallon in four pushing Cordes in five," said NBC color commentator Mike Turico joining in on the excitement of how the race transpired, "And Fallon will touch first."
 
Clocking in at 2 minutes, 8.91 seconds, Fallon cemented a spot in the finals and became the No. 1 seed heading into the final eight qualifiers with Cordes and Licon finishing second and third, respectively (2:09.31 and 2:09.39).
 
As he touched first, the camera zoomed in on the 18-year-old Fallon, mouth open as he turned to look at his time and place. He ripped off his swim cap, gave a fist-pump toward the outside of the pool and took a second look at the scoreboard before taking off his goggles, still seemingly in disbelief. 
 
Although he couldn't replicate the same performance the following day, finishing eighth with a time of 2:12.25, Petto was proud of the young up-and-comer with the way he handled the moment.
 
"It was just all kind of a whirlwind being the No. 1 seed last night and especially the way he swam his race in the semifinals the night before, coming from behind and swimming such a great race," Petto said. "It brought a lot of attention to him. I have to give him credit, after the semifinals two nights ago and the finals last night his demeanor was exactly the same. He was just a happy guy, trying to swim as fast as he can. Last night wasn't as fast as he could go and that's fine. He'll be a better swimmer in the future for it."
 
"It's fun. I'm getting a lot of attention," Petto added jokingly. "I'm still the same coach and I'll be the same coach next week when I'm working back with the 400-plus kids in our program. It's nice to get the attention and recognition for work. I did come into this program in April, so the credit has to go to the coaches and the assistant coaches of the program that I'm leading right now who have developed these kids since a very young age and all the way through up their careers. Allowing them to gain those experiences through being an age-group swimmer and come to this stage and being able to compete so well. It's a pretty cool experience."
 
Prior to taking over as the head coach of the Somerset YMCA, Petto spent six years coaching at Upper Main Line YMCA (UMLY) in Berwyn, PA as the Aquatics Director and helped lead the program to a USA Swimming silver medal, as well as becoming one of the top 100 teams in the country. In 2019 his men's team placed third at YMCA Nationals, while his women's team finished fourth overall, and later that year he guided a swimmer to the USA National Junior Team that competed in Budapest in the World Junior Swimming Championships.
 
Petto spent 10 years as the head coach at Ocean County YMCA in Tomes River, NJ before moving on to Upper Main Line, and since 2013 he was a member of the USA Paralympic National Team Coaching Staff where he coached in international competitions, including at the 2016 Rio Paralympics. 
 
When Petto took over Somerset YMCA he was fully aware of who both Fallon and Alexy were, as the two both qualified for the World Junior Team and competed in Budapest where Petto was also coaching. Fallon even attended a couple practices in Philadelphia that summer to gain access to Upper Main Line's Olympic sized pool and did several workouts with Petto and one of his other former swimmers leading up to the World Junior Championships. The already established relationship helped as Petto tapered Fallon leading up to the Olympic Trials, as they established the goal of setting a new US National age-group record for 18-and-under in his event. As it turned out, he broke the record of 2:09.7 by nearly a second during his standout semifinal race, which came a day before Alexy shattered the 18-and-under record in the 100-meter freestyle in his preliminary swim. 
 
"That was what he was shooting for. Everything else beyond that was an addition," Petto said. "Did he expect to be first after prelims and first after semifinals? No, that was a surprise, but he did want to swim fast."
 
Fallon finished in the top eight with seasoned swimmers, most of which were nearly a decade older than he was. Ultimately, Nic Fink and Andrew Wilson took first and second, respectively, to qualify for the USA Olympic team with Fink coming from the same high school as Fallon, graduating 10 years prior from Pingry School in Somerset County in New Jersey.
 
"They obviously know each other and have crossed paths before," Petto said. "We were in the practice, warm-down pool after the race last night and Nic Fink came over and congratulated him and said good luck in the future. It was nice. It is pretty cool that they both went to the same high school."
 
Although neither Fallon nor Alexy qualified for this year's Games, they still set record marks for their age group. Alexy finished with a time of 48.69 to become the new record holder in the 100 freestyle in his age group, besting the eventual Olympic Trials champion in the event and two-time Olympic gold medalist Caeleb Dressel's record that was set back in 2015, while Fallon swam his way into the history books to break the 200 breaststroke record.
 
Fallon, who placed second all-time in his age group after his preliminary race with a time of 2:10.13, eventually passed Daniel Roy, a four-time All-American at Stanford University and former member of team USA, which record stood since 2018. On the list also includes Cordes, whose 2012 time of 2:10.92 is now fourth all-time.

Although Petto didn't want to guarantee anything for either Fallon or Alexy — who will go on to compete for the University of Pennsylvania and University of California-Berkeley, respectively, next season — what he did acknowledge was the way they continuously work to improve and prepare in order to reach their fullest potential.
 
"What I'm confident about in the two of them and having worked with them is that neither one of them are going to finish their swimming career saying 'what-if,'" he said. "They are going to put in the work and put in the effort and go after it. Saying that they are going to get to the next level and that's going to happen — it's three years away. There is a lot that can happen between now and then. Who knows who is up and coming and that might surpass them that we have no idea about. It is kind of like the way they were. They are not going to end their swimming career saying 'what-if,' neither one of them. They are going to put it all out there to make sure they're in position to get everything they can out of the sport."
 
Petto maximized his swimming career while at SUNY New Paltz. He was inducted into the SUNY New Paltz Athletics Hall of Fame in 1999 and during his four-year career with the Hawks from 1991 to 1994, he became the most decorated athlete ever to graduate from the College. Petto was a two-time team captain, six-time national champion and a 13-time NCAA All-American, establishing himself as the best swimmer in program history. Additionally, he never lost at a SUNYAC meet, earning 12 individual titles, was the James Fulton Award Winner — given annually to a SUNYAC senior male swimmer or diver who has had the most illustrious career — and is still the only student-athlete in Hawks history to be a four-time Floyd Patterson Male Athlete of the Year recipient.
 
However, throughout the success he saw in the pool, what stands out for Petto are the relationships he developed with his teammates and his former head coach in the late Hall of Famer Art Stockin. Within the relationships he developed during his collegiate career is where his coaching is reflected in today.
 
"I got to be honest, it is pretty much one out of one thousand days that people recognize that I was actually a decent swimmer," Petto said. "What I take out of [my time at New Paltz] was the life-lessons and friendships I made while I was there through competing and going to school there, and especially being a part of the swim team.
 
"My experience in New Paltz helped me become a better person and a way better person than I was a swimmer and that's really how I go about running my program when I coach. They are going to come through my program and we are going to do our darndest to swim really fast and obviously we are doing that this week, but through this, are you learning the life-lessons to be a better person? To be prepared to move on in life and to handle the successes and failures that come with life? The swimming is going to end one day and when it ends you don't ever want to say how fast you swam or didn't swim affected who you were as a person. The lessons you learn in trying to swim fast, we want those to make you a better person."

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