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Eugene Jiang from Baton Rouge, Louisiana has announced his commitment to NCAA Division III powerhouse MIT for the fall of 2022.
“I chose MIT for its collaborative and ambitious spirit both academically and athletically.”
Jiang competes for Crawfish Aquatics and is a graduating senior at the Episcopal High School of Baton Rouge. Swimming for Episcopal, Jiang was the LHSAA Division III (Mid-Size School) State Champion in the 50 and 100 freestyle events in 2020. With his performance in the 50 freestyle, he set a new Division III state record (20.86). In addition, he was the runner-up in the 50 and 100 freestyle in both 2019 and 2021. Jaing was a member of The Advocate’s all-Metro team in 2021 from his State Championship performances. Academically, Jiang was a National Merit Finalist, which is an award given to approximately 15,000 students yearly based off of their PSAT Scores.
Best Times SCY:
- 50 freestyle: 20.81
- 100 freestyle: 45.73
- 200 freestyle: 1:40.53
- 200 IM: 1:54.28
With his best times, Jiang will enter MIT as one of their top sprinters as a freshman. As a high school senior, he already holds times within a half second of the NCAA B-cuts in the 50 freestyle (20.61), 100 freestyle (45.27), and 200 freestyle (1:40.03). In addition, in all three of the aforementioned events, he would have ranked 5th on MIT’s roster last season, giving him strong potential to contribute to several different relays over his career. To add to his freestyle prowess, Jiang’s best time in the 200 IM would have ranked 9th on MIT’s roster last season, giving the potential to add the event to his dual meet lineup. Notably, MIT has not had a swimmer from the state of Louisiana on their roster since the 2016-2017, when Ben Rowley competed for the Engineers for one season.
At the 2022 NEWMAC Championships, Jiang would have qualified for the A-finals of the 50 freestyle, 100 freestyle, and 200 freestyle. Notably, in the 50 freestyle, MIT took the top 4 spots in the final, led by sophomore Tobe Obochi, who won the event in a time of 20.22. Obochi also won the 100 freestyle at the NEWMAC Championship (43.82) and later won the NCAA Division III National Championship in the same event with a time of 43.36.
In 2022, MIT’s men won their 13th straight NEWMAC Swimming and Diving Championship Title. The team also placed 6th at the 2022 NCAA Division III Championships, winning the National Championship in the 200 freestyle relay. Jaing will still have some work cut out for him in order to contribute to MIT’s relays his freshman year. With such strong depth in the sprint events, MIT’s slowest 200 freestyle relay split at that meet was a 20.45, almost a half second faster than his best time. Similarly, in the 400 freestyle relay, Jiang would need to drop almost 2 seconds off of his best time to earn a relay spot, as MIT’s slowest split on that relay was 43.76.
With his commitment, Jiang joins Michael Peng, Evan Liu, Theo Chen, Cole Firlie, Zack West, and Thomas Wu in MIT’s class of 2026.
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Smart guy