#8 Raya Mellott (2025) Hands Verbal Commitment to Virginia

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Raya Mellott from Danville, California, has announced her verbal commitment to the University of Virginia for the 2025-26 school year and beyond.

“I’m so excited to announce my verbal commitment to swim and study at the University of Virginia! I’m grateful for the support of my family, coaches, teammates, and friends. Thank you to UVA swim & dive for this opportunity! GO HOOS! 💙🧡⚔️”

A junior at San Ramon Valley High School, Mellott swims for the club team Crow Canyon Sharks and specializes in breaststroke and IM. She is the fastest 100 breaststroker in the cohort, with 59.5/2:09, and we picked her as the #8 recruit on our Way Too Early ranking of high school girls in the class of 2025.

Mellott won the 100 breast by 2.5 seconds (1:00.55) at the 2023 North Coast Section Championships. She also swam on all 3 SRV relays, going 27.55 in the breast on the 200 medley relay and anchoring the 200 free relay (23.35) and 400 free relay (50.72). Her best time in the 100 breast comes from 2022 Winter Juniors West, where she cracked a 59.57 in prelims to post the 2nd time of the morning before coming back in finals and taking 3rd overall with 59.74. She also split a 58.84 breast on CROW’s 400 medley relay, a quartet that also featured UVA verbal commit Bailey Hartman (2024).

Mellott had a big LCM season, earning 2024 Olympic Trials cuts in the 100 breast (1:08.26) and 200 breast (2:29.41) and clocking PBs in the 200 IM (2:20.16), 400 IM (5:00.58), 100 free (58.31), and 400 free (4:34.64).

Best SCY times:

• 100 breast – 59.57 (best in class)
• 200 breast – 2:09.53
• 200 IM – 2:00.63
• 400 IM – 4:19.59

Mellott will join distance freestyler Lily Gormsen in Charlottesville in the fall of 2025. She will fit right in the training group with Emma Weber and Zoe Skirboll, and with relay splits of 27.5/58.8, she will be in contention for the spot on the ‘Hoos’ medley relays. Weber made the A final in the 100 breast at NCAAs last year, while Alex Walsh swam breast on both the 200 and 400 relays. It took 59.19/ 2:08.30 to score in the individual breaststroke events at the national meet, where the Virginia women won their third consecutive title.

If you have a commitment to report, please send an email with a photo (landscape, or horizontal, looks best) and a quote to [email protected].

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