Jack Kushner of the Hershey Aquatic Club and Hershey High School has verbally committed to the Ohio State Buckeyes.
Kushner comes from the same Hershey program that produced David Nolan, the greatest 200 yard IM’er in the history of American high school swimming, and now the fastest 200 yard IM’er at any level.
Kushner’s IM is more of a breaststroke-foundational IM than his predecessor, however.
Best times in yards:
- 100 breaststroke – 57.26
- 200 breaststroke – 2:06.50
- 200 IM – 1:52.89
- 100 fly – 52.73
- 100 back – 53.56
- 100 free – 48.29
While Kushner didn’t have big short course drops in his 100 breaststroke or 200 IM as a junior, he did a ton of work on improving both his 200 yard breaststroke (about a 5 second drop), and showing potential in that third event makes him a much more attractive prospect for a team like Ohio State.
Beyond that, he blew away his best times in long course, including dropping his 100 to a 1:06.39.
He’s already a Winter Junior Nationals qualifier in the 100 yard breaststroke and is approaching Winter Senior Nationals qualifying times as well (he’s only 8-tenths away in long course).
The Buckeyes have at the top of their breaststroking group a U.S. National Teamer in DJ MacDonald, but breaststroke still had to be a target for them in this year’s class. They have three very good sophomores (Jack Barone, Dustin Tynes, and Michael Eaton) but are losing a lot of their depth between the springs of 2015 and 2016 to graduation. The IM group is in a similar situation, and so if Kushner can push toward sub-1:50 by the conclusion of his senior year (or the equivalent in long course), he’ll be a big factor for Ohio State there as well.