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Peter Thompson, a junior at Billings Senior High School in Billings, Montana has announced his verbal commitment to the University of Virginia for 2021-22. Thompson is ranked 16th on our Way Too Early list of boys from the high school class of 2021.
Thompson swims for Billings Aquatic Club and is a member of USA Swimming’s National Junior Team for 2019-20. Thompson came to swimming through the triathlon, competing at the Big Sky State Games. Now, he is an Olympic Trials qualifier and the recipient of the 2019 National Congress of State Games Male Youth Athlete of the Year Award. He currently holds 7 Montana State Records as the fastest swimmer ever in the 15-16 Age Group for 200/400/500/800/1650 free and 400 IM (both SCY and LCM).
Thompson is the top miler in the class of 2021. He qualified for 2020 U.S. Olympic Team Trials in the 1500m free (15:35.51) and for the National Junior Team in the 10K. At Winter Juniors West, he placed 15th in the 500 free and also competed in the 200 free and 400 IM. He picked up new PBs in both freestyles. He competed in the 400/800/1500 free and 400 IM at Speedo Junior Nationals last summer, placing 6th in the 1500, and 18th in the 800, and touching 31st and 36th in prelims of the 400 free and 400 IM, respectively.
Thompson has a lot of potential to make his mark in Charlottesville. He has made tremendous progress over the last three years, as seen in the chart below:
| 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | |
| 1650y free | 16:25.98 | 15:17.66 | 15:19.98 |
| 1500m free | 16:45.74 | 16:00.20 | 15:35.51 |
| 1000 free | 9:37.85 | 9:18.87 | 9:05.95 |
| 800m free | 8:43.09 | 8:21.28 | 8:17.84 |
| 500y free | 4:40.05 | 4:30.61 | 4:25.96 |
| 400m free | 4:16.57 | 4:06.56 | 4:01.57 |
| 400y IM | 4:20.56 | 4:04.17 | 3:57.42 |
| 400m IM | 5:30.43 | 4:54.70 | 4:32.63 |
UVA has also secured verbals from Colin Bitz, Connor Boyle (#14), Daniel Worth, Jack Aikins (#18), Matthew Styczen, Max Iida, and Tyler Sicignano for the class of 2025.
Best SCY times:
- 1650 free – 15:17.66
- 1000 free – 9:05.95
- 500 free – 4:25.96
- 200 free – 1:39.76
- 400 IM – 3:57.42
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Congrats, Peter! Great to see another Montana kid going Div 1! Good luck going forward!
Pure Troll bait and I’ll bite… Previously unheard of?? I remember Auburn being the best for a long time, and Texas still is… Indiana also had a big tradition of winning titles back in the day.. same with NC State. I would not consider any of them, nor do any of the legitimate ranking of college academics consider them above UVA. In fact, I can’t think of another East Coast university that parallels Virginia in academics AND athletics. And just to make those happy in Ann Arbor, lets call that the midwest and not the east coast.
Congrats on committing! Hopefully you’ll enjoy it there!
Congrats Peter. Welcome to the ACC. But I will be rooting for the Pack! 😜
UVA is ranked top 5 in the nation…
Congratulations, Peter! Great school and swim program.
Gretchen may not have wanted to travel so far from home. It’s nice to have your parents be able to come to your meets and to have less travel time home on the brief breaks you get as a college swimmer.
UVA has one of the top ranked commerce schools in the nation. Stanford is overrated, and not for everyone. As for IVYs, other than Cornell, not really good places for future engineers.
UVA has great location, beautiful campus, strong school spirits, too-notch academics, and athletic scholarship, other than its dismal dining hall food, what’s not to love. 😅
Hold on now… Runk is awesomem if it still exists…. and to the above comment about Bodo’s… I would take Runk over Bodo’s any day, but one hell of a mess at white spot is the most underrated breakfast in Cville.