"I think a lot of things have changed since February, in a good way."
 
Looking back at third-year Lake Superior State swimmer Dmitrij Mijailovic's statement, there's a lot to unpack. The last time the team competed, the then-second year Lakers were sending Fedor Mironov to the NCAA Division II National Championships, the program's first national qualifier.
 
Then, Head Coach Tim O'Neill spent the next few months loading up his Men's and Women's rosters to the gills with young talent, adding tons of quality and quantity to both teams. The Lakers brought in five new men's swimmers and eight new women's swimmers. They've signed national champions, international talents and legions of young stars with collective decades of friendships across both teams.
 
O'Neill coached the Lakers into nationals for their debut a year ago. Now, he plans on making LSSU a fixture on that same stage, way ahead of the typical schedule for a third-year program.
 
"The competitive level we're already hitting with this team is extremely high," said O'Neill. "They're well-versed in a lot of different events, and we're going to have depth in races we haven't had yet. I think people are really going to be thrown off by the level we're going to hit at such an early point in our program."
 
This year's incoming swimmers will certainly raise eyebrows and expectations while lowering jaws. Laurel Roberts-Burrell won the 50m Backstroke in the Men's Over-18 division at the prestigious English Summer Nationals, earned gold at the 200m Backstroke and took silver in the 100m Backstroke at the same event.
 
"It's a competition I've done yearly for the last four years," said Roberts-Burrell. "This is the main one, the one you're aiming for and the one you want to do really well at. I was really pushing myself in training and working on my strokes. I was going in quite low as well, I'd not done as many competitions, but to go in there and win two golds and a silver, I'm quite ecstatic.
 
For the 50 Back, it was a really close race. I'd won it on the touch. I was very nervous throughout the race. Seeing my name next to number one on the board, I was ecstatic. It was so nice to have that gold medal and realize I'd won the 50 Back."
 
Not long after his late July victories, the young star from Derby Excel blew away his new teammates after arriving in Sault Ste. Marie.
 
"I've gotta say, I saw Laurel swim," recalled Mijailovic, remembering that first training session with the kind of awe one reserves for watching something epic. "He jumps into the pool, does two kicks underwater, does three pulls, and he's on the other side of the pool. He's literally laying on the water. He's so talented for this sport."
 
He's joined by fellow Englishman Lewis Hickman, who qualified for the Aquatics GB British Championship and Olympic Trials in 2024. An excellent breaststroker, the Kingswinford, UK native joins his countryman Roberts-Burrell at Lake State. That's not an accident, according to O'Neill. He wanted to bring in talented swimmers who were familiar with each other's backgrounds prior to joining the Lakers.
 
He said, "I really tried to find athletes that had friendships and bonds with incoming swimmers. For instance, we have three swimmers from Hungary that grew up on the same team and have been swimming together for years, two swimmers from Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina have known each other for years, too. We can be a really small world, but it's important that these athletes have familiar faces, people who can make them feel at home on campus."
 
The Hungarians are a tremendously talented group. Peter Miszey hails from Budapest, while Mate Szatmari, Zita Gonda, Anna Racz, and Eszter Veszelovszki all call Hódmezovásárhely home. Gonda marks another fantastic recruiting win for O'Neill – she finished second in the 50m Free at the Hungarian Youth National Swimming Championships, eighth in the 100m Back and fourth in the 200m Back. O'Neill praised her versatility, saying that he expects Gonda's versatility will be extremely important moving forward.
 
Szatmari looks like a special talent, too. At the November 2025 National Short Course Youth Championships, the 6'6" Hungarian placed third in the 200m Breaststroke and fourth in the 50m race. He was a four-time qualifier at the 2025 Hungarian Youth Championships, too, earning a silver medal in the 100m Breaststroke.
 
Paraguayan Constanza Areco Sancho brings nearly a decade of international experience to LSSU. She began swimming for Paraguay in international competitions in 2019, then won the 200m long course Freestyle race at the Paraguayan National Youth and Junior Championships this summer.
 
While Sancho has represented her country for a large portion of her life, she remains fully engaged in the significance of her experience and what that means for her future in the Soo. She said, "I'm super proud. This is not a small thing. I can represent Paraguay. I'm the only Paraguayan and Latina for the swim team, and it means a lot for me. I'm very proud."
 
She reflected on her championship and said, "I was training so hard for that competition because it was my last one before I came here. That moment was really special."
 
It's not wholly unusual to have one or two athletes who competed for their national teams or junior national teams, even for a young program like LSSU. To have a whole host of them in the program's third season is incredible.
 
O'Neill said, "I think part of the beauty in an NCAA Division II program is you have athletes in all different areas with different skillsets and backgrounds. I'm always asking questions about what their backgrounds look like in the sport and how that might translate to what I see in the water. That history, not only from the technical side, but from a coaching mindset, allows me to help every person, no matter what their background is."
 
It's O'Neill's care and attention to technical details that brought this extremely talented young group together. Every student-athlete that spoke for this story commented on those two aspects. Mijailovic expressed a fondness for his head coach entering their second season together.
 
"I think Tim is a really good coach. I've changed a lot of coaches, and Tim is a really good coach, because he's not the old-school coach that just thinks like, 'If we swim 10,000 yards at practice, we'll achieve a lot and be way better.' He actually looks at every single swimmer to see what technique problems they have, see what they need to do. Do they actually need to swim more? How are their aerobic levels, are they maxed at their levels? He pays attention to those things, puts us in groups, and every group has a different practice. Every swimmer in the group has a different goal on their technique or whatever that they need to follow in that practice to make their stroke better and be faster in a race."
 
Women's team captain Ivy Delo said, "Tim does a very good job. You can see him at practice, watching and searching. He'll point out things to fix, and there's always something to work on. I like to know what I'm doing wrong and how to fix it."
 
Roberts-Burrell added, "I think he brings a different coaching style, which I'm very interested in. I'm very used to having different coaches every year, so I'm very interested to see what he can provide me and how he can help me improve. I think he can help me work on my technique a little bit and help my stroke rate, because that's something I've always been told is a bit slow. I've managed to do well with it, as you can see. But it's something I want to improve going forward so I hope he can help me work on that."
 
Sancho said, "I felt the coach's heart. Before I came here, he was super supportive of me. My mom told me that if it is a small school, you can be closer to your friends, the teacher, the coach, and that could be a good thing."
 
O'Neill talked about how he connected with each of these then-prospective student-athletes during the recruiting process. "They got to know that I was interested in how they did. The connection that I made with them. I'm going to be really invested in how they progress, whether they're here or back at home. I'm their coach, and I really value their individual goals, and they know that now."
 
Saturday marks the first meet day of the season, as the Lakers travel to Findlay. The Oilers' women's team finished seventh nationally at the 2026 NCAA Division II Swimming and Diving Championships, while the men's team finished eighth.  It's a large test for the Lakers, who still have a small roster – numerically speaking. Mijailovic pointed out that while many teams will feature 30 male and 30 female swimmers, LSSU's newer program is still a small squad. Team scores likely won't be great – those tend to weigh heavily against even the best smaller squads.
 
But the Lakers will win races against very good swimmers. They will get into the pool and take results from people who will compete at the very best competitions in Division II.
 
"There's so much talent on the team. I'm so excited for what they're going to bring.
 
"I felt like we're going to be a force to be reckoned with soon."
 
Mijailovic stated, "I think a lot of people see that we're a team that's going to be something, even after I'm gone and a lot of these people are gone. They're going to see that this team, this coach, and a lot of the people on the team are capable of doing something, and they will do something in the future."
 
"I think [other teams] are going to be thrown off," said O'Neill. "I think some coaches will expect it, because they've known me from the past. But in-conference, how we're going about our business is going to turn heads."
 
Make no mistake, this program is still in a growth and maturation process. But less than two seasons after the program's foundation, and with less than a full season as Head Coach, O'Neill landed the Lakers to the national stage. This year, he said the focus is on coming together and embracing the collegiate system. While he wants great performances, his big aim is to see the continued development of the culture. Raise the standard and results will follow. A bunch of talented recruits and quality individuals that bond together can make your team feared in sports.
 
"Hopefully, they'll see our name and go, 'Oh, no. Not them again.' I think we'll give them a run for their money," said Roberts-Burrell.
 
Not them again. A phrase that might get repeated more often between now and next February.