Distance swimmer Anna Jahns has verbally committed to North Carolina State, she announced via her Twitter account Wednesday.
Jahns swims for Gwinnett Aquatics and Brookwood High School in Northeast Atlanta.
NC State has built a reputation in the last few years on their ability to develop sprinters. They had four of the top 8 50 freestylers at the ACC Championships last year en route to a 4th-place team finish.. Jahns, however, will add a new dimension to the team She has yards bests of 4:47.50 in the 500 free and 16:29.11 in the 1650 free, both of which were done as a junior.
She also has bests of 2:00.18 in the 200 yard back and 4:21.21 in the 400 yard IM as secondary events.
NC State didn’t have anybody place in the top 8 at the 2014 ACC Championships in the 500 or 1650 frees. Her times aren’t quite there yet, but if she comes anywhere near continuing her rate of improvement, she could be there by her first championship meet in 2016. As a freshman in the 500, she was a 4:59.00; as a sophomore she had improve to 4:51.51, and as a junior she took another four seconds off for the best time.
Her rate of improvement in the 1650 has been even more impressive – she dropped thirty seconds as a junior alone.
Just because NC State hasn’t signed many great distance swimmers in the past doesn’t mean that Braden Holloway and his staff haven’t shown the ability to develop them. Rachel Miller was the program’s best as a freshman last year, and even coming in as a relative novice to the distance world she dropped almost 7 seconds in the mile and over two in the 500 free as a freshman.
Jahns is the defending Georgia 6A (large school) State Champion in the 500 free and was the runner-up in the 200 free as well.
Yay!!! Go Pack!