Tandon athletes shine — whether it’s in the pool, on the golf green, or navigating whitewater rapids
Last season, when the NYU women’s basketball team clinched the 2023-24 Division III championship, the excitement surrounding the sport reached a fever pitch. The cheers might have been especially loud here in Brooklyn thanks to the presence on the team of Tandon student Natalie Bruns, who had already shattered multiple university records and recorded her 1,000th point.
In previous years Bruns had been the only Tandon representative on the team — unsurprising given both the rigor of a STEM-based curriculum and the need to travel frequently to Washington Square for practices. Last season she was joined by a trio of engineering peers, all superstars in their own rights: Morgan Morrison, Yasmene Clark, and Maria Alvarado.
It was an undeniably exhilarating time for basketball fans at Tandon. A quartet of skilled player-athletes, a big role in an NCAA championship, an invitation to the White House for the Violets ...
But basketball is far from the only game in town for Tandon athletes. Read on to learn more about just a few of our up-and-comers.
Maksym Nechydyuk (‘28)
Swimming
Maksym Nechydyuk began swimming at the age of five in his native Ukraine, and within a decade he was collecting medals at high-profile competitions, including taking first place at the 2021 International School Sport Federation under-15 games in Belgrade and becoming the Ukrainian national junior champ at 15.
His life was upended, however, soon after that national championship, when Russia invaded Ukraine. With his father, like all men of conscription age, required to remain in the country, Nechydyuk and his mother fled to the U.S., bouncing between Massachusetts, Florida, and North Carolina.
Nechydyuk, who ultimately graduated from Ardrey Kell High School, in Charlotte, North Carolina, arrived at NYU Tandon determined to both study computer science and continue his swimming career. Upon his arrival, he dove right in — metaphorically and literally. Within just a few months he had been named UAA Athlete of the Week twice: the first for his performance in early October at a Fordham University invitational, where he aced the 200-yard breaststroke in 2:05.82 and the 200-yard individual medley in 1:53.26 and recorded second-place finishes in the 100-yard breaststroke (58.20) and as a member of the 200-yard medley relay team. The second honor recognized his contribution during November’s NYU Fall Invitational, where he captured the 400 individual medley in 3:57.02 (the fastest in NCAA Division III to date in the season, while also finishing first in the 200 breaststroke, posting the fifth-fasted time (2:05.48) in the entire nation.
The key to success is consistency and balance, he asserts. “It might seem like there aren’t enough hours in the day to practice, compete, study, and take advantage of everything New York City has to offer,” he says. “Honestly, I’m still getting used to it, but I know it can be done.”
Jomyuth Luangtana-anan (‘27)
Golf
Jomyuth Luangtana-anan remembers orientation his first year at NYU. While other new students were learning the best things to order at the Jasper Kane Cafeteria and touring the MakerSpace, he was in Vermont teeing off at his college debut tournament. That week, he came in third out of 120 participating golfers, and two weeks later, he took home the championship trophy from his second tournament, the Bowdoin Invitational. By the end of the season he had been named the Liberty League Rookie of the Year as well as a member of the NCAA All-Region Team, Second Team All-Liberty League, and Second Team All-UAA.
Luangtana-anan had already proven himself a star before arriving at Tandon, however. He had been introduced to the game by his father at an early age and by high school, he was ranked in the top ten amateur players in Thailand, as well as number 417 in the world (unbelievable accomplishments given that the World Amateur Golf Ranking includes almost 8,000 ranked players of all ages).
Like many amateurs, he dreamt of going pro but realized he needed a back-up. “Tiger Woods is an inspiration, but there are not many Tiger Woods in the world,” Luangtana-anan admits. Wanting to combine golfing competitively with serious academics, he researched Division III schools and discovered Tandon, where he now majors in Civil Engineering and serves as a member of NYU’s award-winning Concrete Canoe team. This past year, in a competition sponsored by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), the team made innovations in the concrete composition, hull design, and construction methods that led to a decrease in carbon emissions of 97%, compared to industry standards. Luangtana-anan, who had long been interested in engineering, says, “It’s impossible to be out on a golf course and not want to help safeguard the health of the planet, and I know Tandon will give me the knowledge and tools to do that.”
Now, during his sophomore year, he is continuing his dominance on the course. Soon after the semester started he was named Liberty League Performer of the Week and broke par in half of his rounds (below the allocated par, usually 72). He has posted multiple records during his time here, including a school-record single-round score of 67, the second-best NYU career average of 74.3 (not far from the PGA average of 71) and a Regional rank of third.
Despite the hard work and long hours involved (the team travels to courses in New Jersey to practice), he can’t imagine doing anything else. “I love winning, but even losing can provide valuable lessons,” he says. “And whatever happens during a practice or game, I return to my studies with renewed clarity and focus.”
Laura Plata (‘28)
Slalom Canoeing
If you haven’t heard of the sport of slalom canoeing, don’t worry, Laura Plata says. Many people haven’t. “Just think of it like slalom skiing, but on whitewater rapids,” she explains. “The goal is to maneuver through a series of gates without either skipping or touching any, in the fastest possible time.”
One reason not many people have had the opportunity to learn about the sport: there are just three of the massive man-made courses in the U.S., in Oklahoma City, Montgomery, and Charlotte (the largest in the country, at 1,300 acres).
Plata got her start at a summer camp in the North Carolina mountains, where she was introduced to recreational kayaking. When she discovered that she lived a short drive away from the Whitewater Center, in Charlotte, however, she really became hooked. Although she was already 14, older than the age at which most high-level competitors begin training, she diligently honed her skills, and, relatively quickly, she made the junior national team. (She quips that the silver lining in the COVID-19 pandemic is that it provided ample opportunity to practice outdoor sports.)
In 2022 she traveled to Italy with the team, and the following year she won her first international medal. She now competes for Colombia, a switch she made to honor her family’s heritage, and she’s looking forward to the PanAm Championships next March and the Under-23 World Championships next June.
She plans to study abroad in the fall of 2025 at the University of New South Wales, earning credits towards her civil engineering degree while training for the World Championships in Penrith (a suburb very close to Sydney) in October of 2025. (Plata, who is interested in urban design, hails from a family of engineers, and while she rebelled briefly as a teen, engineering seems to be in her blood, she says, making the choice of NYU Tandon a natural one.)
Like Luangtana-anan, Plata, who minors in public policy and management, is a member of the Concrete Canoe team. The ASCE competition always includes a component in which team members race the craft they have built. Quite naturally, she will be one of the paddlers during the next event. “I think we have a really good chance to do well in that portion,” she predicts.