Update: Lorenz decommitted from Arizona to go to Arizona State instead.
The Arizona Wildcats have already made magic happen with one very tall breaststroker, Kevin Cordes.
Now, they’ll hope to add to their recent impressive breaststroke legacy with another, after getting a verbal commitment from Avon, Indiana’s Christian Lorenz, who stands 6’4″ tall.
He is fairly purely a sprint breaststroker, with a yards best of 56.10 in the 100 and a meters best of 1:06.51. He has been 2:06.64 in the 200 yard race, though, so he’s within range where that race will surely improve as he gets stronger.
His improvement in the 100 has been really impressive:
freshman year: 1:00.97sophomore year: 58.48junior year: 56.10
If he continues that trend, by the times he arrives at Arizona, he could be a 54-high, or at least a 55-low, in that race, which all of a sudden pushes him into the upper echelon of breaststrokers in the class.
The physical comparisons to Cordes are really pretty striking. Cordes is obviously a lot more muscular now, but Lorenz has a very similar frame: very tall, and very lean.
In fact, Arizona has a lot of experience with tall breaststrokers; Kevin Steel is listed at 6’3″ tall, and Mickelson is even relatively tall at 6’2″, in addition to the 6’5″ Cordes. The United States is starting to pick up on an international trend of breaststroke favoring taller breaststrokers. Other countries have long directed these taller swimmers to be breaststrokers (with most sitting 6’3-6’4 or better), with top American breaststrokers historically centering more around 6’0 even.
In the least, Arizona adds another solid 53/54 second breaststroker to a group that presently includes two World Championship Team swimmers (Cordes and senior Kevin Steel), plus the three fastest 100 yard breaststrokers in the Pac 12 from last year (including the now-graduated Carl Mickelson). Best case, Lorenz has the physical tools to be yet another 51/52 second 100 breaststroker.
Lorenz swims for Avon High School and Avon Community Swim Team.
He’s only 18 seconds of Cordes in the 200..could happen
Congrats to Christian. I am certain his college career will be a success.
Hopefully this tall breaststroker won’t take long smooth strokes and effectively not even pull but rather bob his head up and down:)
+1
Ok so I’m just gonna throw this out there. His times are not impressive. A four second drop from freshman to junior year is hardly atypical, especially of a breaststroker. Not to mention 2:06 is pedestrian. I’m not saying he won’t the good, but the jump from 56 to 53 is HUGE. 56 breaststrokers in high school are a dime a dozen, and it won’t get you to a top 8 finish in almost any D1 conference. Again, not saying he won’t do it, but let’s be easy on him
Agree….just because he is tall doesn’t mean he is going to be the next Kevin Cordes. Kevin was a lot faster out of high school. Probably being tall might hurt him.
Avon, IN is a hop, skip, and jump from Bloomington and just a little bit farther to West Lafayette. Too bad IU or Purdue couldn’t get this guy…