Huntington Woods Brothers Make a Splash at MSU

They swim the same events.

They live in the same dormitory.

And they have found a way to positively push each other athletically all the way up to the college level.

Jason and Jacob Austermann have taken their swimming careers beyond to Michigan State University. There’s just something about the thrill of competition and the love of swimming that has kept this pair of Huntington Woods brothers in the water at the college level.

“So far, it’s been a lot of fun,” said Jacob Austermann, who is a general management major. “The guys on the team are really great. Just to be part of the team is a really good time.”

What has the experience of swimming for State been like?

“It’s been amazing,” said Jason Austermann, who is studying human biology. “It’s everything I would ever hope for being a college athlete.”

Jason, a 2008 Berkley graduate, recently completed his portion of the 2010-11 junior year with a solid season-best showing for the Spartans at the Big Ten Championships on Feb. 23-26 at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.

Jacob, a 2010 Berkley graduate, wrapped up his freshman college campaign with a trio of season-best times turned in at the Big Ten Championships.

While their season is officially finished, the work is far from over.

The two will take a few weeks off from training and then begin preparing for the summer session of workouts that take place at MSU through USA Swimming.

Both Austermanns swim primarily the distance freestyle events and are very competitive with each other – in a good way.

Their swims at the Big Ten Championships looked like this:

• Jason was 63rd overall in the 200-yard freestyle with a season-best time of 1:42.00. Jacob took 64th place in the 200 freestyle with a season-best time of 1:42.11.
• In the 1,650 freestyle, Jason was 40th overall with a season-best time of 16:5.45. Jacob was 41st with a season-best performance of 16:12.27.
• The brothers saw distance between their final outcomes only in the 500 freestyle. Jason finished 48th overall with a season-best time of 4:30.94, and Jacob was 62nd in a season-best 4:37.59.

“It’s not as much as a competition between the two, it’s more a motivation of each other,” said MSU assistant coach Tim Loeffler, who works primarily with middle distance and distance freestyle swimmers. “As each one gets better, the other gets excited about the other one swimming faster.”

The Austermanns have been swimming since they were children. Their oldest brother, John, competed for the University of Michigan and is still involved in the sport in the Berkley area in a variety of coaching capacities.

Jason initially followed his older brother to U-M but was dissatisfied in Ann Arbor. He transferred to MSU midway through his sophomore year.

“At U of M, I knew the atmosphere was not working for me,” Jason said. “Originally, I thought I’d transfer after one semester, but then I thought I’d give it a full year. ... I came here, and I was very happy.”

In turn, Jacob had a successful recruiting trip to East Lansing and followed his older brother to East Lansing, turning down the opportunity to compete at U-M.

The brothers live in different dorm rooms in the same residence hall on MSU’s campus. They spend at least 20 hours per week during the season training together in the same events.

It’s a relationship that’s worked out well.

“It’s been pretty good,” Jacob said of competing with his brother at MSU. “I swam with him for four years before he went off to college; now I’m just sort of closer to him. Now I’m taller and can keep up with him little better.”

Training together is nothing new.

The Austermanns were longtime participants of the and Oakland Live Y’ers (a USA Swimming competitive age group program), in addition to swimming at Berkley High.

Now they get to showcase their talents across the country as part of the Big Ten.

“It’s always been us competing against each other,” Jason said. “Now, if I do not have a good week of training, then he will get in an event, and it’s the other way around. We never get mad at each other. If anything, we get happy for each other and get down on ourselves if we do bad. It’s a friendly competitive attitude, I would say.”

While the Austermanns have not set any MSU records and will not compete at the NCAA Championships this month, they play a critical role for the Spartans.

The brothers give the Spartans depth at the distance events, which are not always a favorite choice among swimmers because of the amount of training that is required.

“Meet after meet, they swim and score points,” Loeffler said. “They might not get the top points, but they consistently score points throughout the season.”