Ryan Ball of Loveland, CO has verbally committed to the University of Wyoming. A senior at Loveland High School and member of Loveland Swim Club, Ball was third in the 100 fly and third in the 100 back at the 2013 Colorado Boys 5A high school championships with two All-American consideration times (50.50 and 51.17, respectively).
It is likely Ball will be even more successful with the Cowboys as his strongest events are longer distances than anything high school swimming has to offer. Most notably he excels at 200 back (1:46) and 400 IM (3:53), although he also competes in the 200/500 (1:45/4:31) free, 200 IM (1:52), 100 back (50.18), and 100 fly (50.06). He also swam the 400/800 (4:02/8:24) at Summer Juniors and the mile (15:30) at Winter Juniors.
Ball’s 1:46.00 200 back would break the current Wyoming record by .01. His 100 back, 100 fly, and 400 IM would all make their respective top-ten lists as well. But the Cowboys have had fast recruits these last several years; eight all-time individual records and all of the free relays were broken in 2012-13 and one individual / one medley relay in 2011-12. In addition, a whole slew of swims on the top ten lists belong to current team members.
Ball told SwimSwam, “I am so excited to be a Wyoming Cowboy. The team is great and the coaches are awesome! Go Pokes!”