Sophomore-to-be Jake Lamparella is transferring from Wisconsin to Virginia Tech this fall, which takes him closer to his native Elliott City, Maryland.
When Lamparella arrived, he was meant to help back-fill a Badger backstroke group that was losing former NCAA Champion Drew teDuits. While Lamparella was able to make some improvements in his one year with the Badgers, they weren’t enough to get near the top of what became a very-deep Wisconsin backstroke group last season.
Lamparella’s high school/college best times:
- 100 back – 49.71/49.18
- 200 back – 1:48.05/1:46.75
- 200 free – 1:39.44/1:39.15
With his departure, Wisconsin loses 3 of their top 5 backstrokers from last season, though they return their ace sprinter Brett Pinfold (46.58/1:42.38) for his senior season.
Lamparella will walk into a Virginia Tech training group that has a strong senior class (including Robert Owen), but that lacks the top-end quality that Wisconsin has had over the last few years.
Behind Owen’s 47.10 in the 100 last year, the Hokies had a trio of underclassmen go 48.1 and 48.2 last season.
The Wisconsin Badgers’ men’s and women’s swim teams have been the beneficiaries of some high-profile transfers in the last few seasons, and have played the other side of this particular decision.
Not too big of a loss considering they have kids in their incoming freshman class that are faster than those times already.
……………..Ellicott City, Maryland…………..Elliott is the Morning DJ in Washington, DC