Being only a year apart, brothers Justin and Joey Decheck have done a lot together. Mostly, they have competed in swimming together: through youth ranks, at Plum High School and now at Gannon.

Throughout their time at Plum, they teamed on countless relays, but they never were able to set a school record together. It was a point of some consternation for both.

“In high school, I had a handful of records on our record board,” said Justin, a senior at Gannon. “I had a relay record with three guys who don’t swim anymore, didn’t swim in college or anything. With (Joey) for three years, it was like, ‘Come on. We couldn’t get one relay record together or something?’ ”

In November, during a 10-team invitational at Division I Cleveland State, the Dechecks finally got their record together. Along with Will Moses and Stephen McCallum, they finished the 400 freestyle relay in 3 minutes, 1.99 seconds. Justin swam the lead leg, and Joey swam the third leg.

“It was definitely special,” Joey, a junior, said. “This was sort of redemption in our eyes. Doing it with him was very special because I see the work that he puts in, and he sees the work that I put in.”

But the Dechecks are hoping to do more for the Gannon men’s swimming team than rewrite records. They want to rewrite the team’s identity.

Four years ago, Jacqueline Michalski was hired to take over the swimming programs. Justin Decheck already had committed under the previous coaching regime, and though he said he never seriously considered transferring, he wondered how the change might affect him.

Shortly after Michalski’s arrival, his mind was put at ease.

Michalski sat down with him and fellow freshmen Andrew Beyer and Alex Deemer and told them she was counting on them to help build the foundation of her program.

Joey Decheck soon became part of that building process as well, taking his place in Michalski’s first recruiting class.

“I didn’t have any sort of input in trying to force him to come here or force him to not come here,” Justin said. “I told him to reach out because, in a lot of ways, we’re apples from the same tree. We have the chemistry, and we have the same goals from a swimming standpoint.”

Said Joey: “Having him at Gannon was definitely something I was looking at. We’ve been swimming together our whole lives, and I couldn’t see us not swimming together for the rest of our career.”

Michalski said both men have delivered exactly as she had hoped.

“Both of them have not only gotten better as athletes, but they have really grown as men,” Michalski said. “They really have taken a step forward in leadership for our program and have really stood with me as a coach to really help elevate this men’s program.

“They both are very attention-to-detail oriented, and both are able to take feedback that I give them and really work on the little things and stay focused.”

Since his arrival at Gannon, Joey Decheck has been primarily a sprinter. Justin, on the other hand, has seen his events change.

Originally a middle-distance swimmer, Justin had his repertoire pared by Michalski to focus more on sprinting. In his first three seasons, Justin competed in a number of different events and still has the versatility to plug in where he might be needed.

But moving forward, it appears a lot of the 200-yard events will not be on his radar. Justin said he welcomed the change.

“I was training and doing events that we needed,” he said. “Sometimes that changed from meet-to-meet basis or even a week-to-week basis. At times, I liked it because I could do anything, and I didn’t have to get complacent with one event. Other times, I think, ‘Why can’t I be insanely good at one event versus pretty good at every other event?’

“For the first offseason ever in my career, I can solely focus on sprinting versus trying to fit in training for 200 back or 200 IM or whatever. So I am really excited about that.”

And he and Joey are excited about the future of the team. Justin plans on taking the extra “covid year” of eligibility, giving him and Joey one more season together to reach their ultimate goal.

For years, the Gannon men have not been able to shake out of third place in the PSAC. West Chester has won all but one PSAC men’s swimming championship since the turn of the millennium. Bloomsburg is the only other team to win a title in that span (2021). Otherwise, the Huskies were racking up second-place finishes.

That’s the ceiling the Golden Knights are hoping to break. Their goal is to not only win a conference title but put Gannon men’s swimming on the map in Pennsylvania and beyond.

“There’s always hope for making NCAAs, and we have the talent to do so,” Joey said. “We’re looking to make a statement in the conference this year because we finally have a big team with loads of talent.”

Added Justin: “Getting to the next level of having a national presence … whereas people hear ‘Gannon swimming’ and they think, ‘Oh, these guys are legit. This is the culture they have. This is the swimming they have. That’s a hard school to go to for swimming.’ Really raise the standard compared to years past.”

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