Georgia Women Land Another Top-10 Recruit, Annie Zhu

After taking a week off to give the rest of the country a chance to earn some verbals Georgia head coach Jack Bauerle is back on the hunt, and have earned a verbal commitment from collegeswimming.com’s #10-ranked recruit in the country, Annie Zhu.

Zhu first made her break on the national scene at the 2008 US Olympic Trials, where at 13 she was one of the youngest competitors in the field. At that meet, she competed as a breaststroker and an IM’er, and those are likely to be her primary events in Athens.In yards,she’s got bests of 1:01.7/2:11.5 in the breaststrokes, both of which would have left her just outside of the B final. In the IM’s, she’s got bests of 1:58.4/4:13.2, which would have earned her one B-final and one near B-final.

But in reality, she could swim almost anything for Georgia. She’s got 2:02’s in both the 200 back and 200 fly, and a 1:49 in the 200 free. In the sprint freestyles, she’s gone a 23.9 and a 51.8, though both were done when she was 14 or younger.

Zhu’s time progression is really sort of interesting. In the 400 IM, she hasn’t gone a best time since 2009. In the 200 IM, though, she’s dropped 4 seconds. The reverse is true of her breaststrokes – her best 100 was in 2009, but in the 200, she dropped over a second the next season.

Zhu hails from the same Asphalt Green program that Lia Neal trains for in Manhattan.

With this verbal, there’s only one huge fish left to make a decision – Jasmine Tosky of Palo Alto. It’s unlikely that she’s going to Cal, and a lot of people seem to like her as a fit for USC. But we will see soon enough, as the National signing day comes up in about 3 weeks.