Judd Howard, a senior at University High in Irvine, has given a verbal commitment to swim for Duke with the 2015-16 season.
Howard specializes in breaststroke, IM and mid-distance freestyle. As a junior, he was an integral member of University’s CIF Southern Section Division 1 championship team, finishing second in the 100 breast (55.97) and 14th in the 500 free (4:34.46).
In long course, Howard is a US Open qualifier in the 100m and 200m breast and a Winter Juniors qualifier in the 200m and 400m IM as well as the 400m free. He was a C-finalist in the 200 breast at Juniors in Irvine this summer, but off his time a bit in the 100. Howard competed in the Maccabiah Games in July 2013, swimming the 100m, 200, and 400m free, 100m and 200m breast, and 200m and 400m IM.
Howard has had relatively more success in long course season than in short course, but he’s dropped 3 seconds in the 100y breast and 4 in the 200 over the last two seasons so he’s still improving. His best times include:
100y breast: 55.97 100m breast: 1:04.41
200y breast: 2:01.14 200m breast: 2:20.01
200y IM: 1:55.01 200m IM: 2:10.37
400y IM: 4:04.32 400m IM: 4:37.30
500y free: 4:33.65 400m free: 4:04.91
Howard will have some familiar faces waiting to train with when he gets to Duke, as fellow Californian breaststrokers Peter Kropp and Dylan Payne will be juniors when he is a freshman.
Does Title IX mean that a men’s varsity sport has to be funded or is it discretionary for the university to fund a program or not? Obviously the “full funding” for women’s sport teams like swimming is higher than same sport for men’s teams so that the football scholarship number on the men’s side can be offset; but can an NCAA school just be arbitrary and fully fund a women’s side and not fund a men’s side at all in the same sport? Seems unfair, but maybe Duke is saving their dollars to pour into certain men’s teams like soccer?
Joel Lin – it’s complex. They have discretion, as long as they stay within the allowable range. I’m not a Title IX expert, but it’s not a dollar-for-dollar count.
My impression with Duke was that it was an overall budget issue, but that’s just a hunch – not based on anything real.
No scholarship funding
Does Duke offer any scholarships for the men’s swim and dive team? I think the women’s team is fully funded, but I may be wrong.
Anyone know the answer(s)?
Billy – the women actually just received a huge bump in scholarship offerings, and I think are working toward a fully-funded program. Wouldn’t surprise me if the men aren’t far behind, but nothing announced for them so far.