Capping off an incredible Tuesday in Harvard men’s recruiting, Koya Osada from Duke Aquatics made his intention to swim for Harvard known publicly late Tuesday night. Osada comes from the heart of ACC country, but will head up the coast line for his college swimming, pending the expected positive outcome of the admissions process.
“I am extremely excited to join the Crimson family and I love the direction the swim program is headed,” Osada said of his decision. “I cannot wait to immerse myself in the team culture and continue the tradition of excellence that has been established by years past.”
Osada is yet another very versatile swimmer in this class. His best events run from the 100 to 500 yard freestyles, where he’s flat-started 46.0, 1:39.4, and 4:29.1.
He also goes 49.5 and 1:47.4 in the 100 and 200 yard backstrokes.
Osada may have some open water potential in his future, which would make training with and under the United States’ best open water swimmer Alex Meyer a big draw to Harvard. In 2012
Harvard’s class now includes Edward Kim, Steven Tan, Shane McNamara, Jack Boyd, and Osada: as impressive of a quintet as we’ve seen from an Ivy League school in a while. In 2012, Osada was the fastest 18 & under in the 1.7-mile pier-to-pier swim at just 16 years old: a race frequented by collegiate swimmers.
In addition to his own swimming, Koya this summer helped coach his older brother Shuya Osada, who was one of the stars of the 2013 Special Olympics North Carolina Summer Games this summer. Shuya took gold in the 100 free, the 200 free, and the 100 back.
Academics are you kidding me!!! All of these recruits are Scholastic-All Americans.
Some of the smartest kids in the country. You are CLUELESS. By the way they also
train 3-5 hours a day. All of you are a credit to your schools and families!! LOL
It is indeed a “double edge sword”; I know of swimmers who have had the academic credentials/extra curriculars, and rigorous course load to get into some of these schools, but they weren’t ranked high enough to be considered by the coaches (“B”/”C” finals at JNATs). I would caution any athlete/parent/coach: don’t chose a school (regardless of the “swim reputation”) if you do not meet the academic standards of a “regular admit”. It will either end in a short scholastic career at that school or a short tenure on the swim team.
Is it wrong to also want to hear about the academic records of all of these top recruits who are going to the top academic programs in the country? It speaks scores about the hard work and dedication these kids have to succeed both in and out of the pool; in both swimming and academics ..
Also consider in most cases the kid with better academics that wasn’t an athlete, that won’t be admitted despite better academics than most athletes. While I commend all swimmers for achieving academically and also in swimming, swimming usually gives kid an edge of admission where they have lower scores than the typical accepted student. This is a double edge sword, that is both great for the athlete, but then sucks for the other kids.
Agree, but also considered, they are not far off a regular admit. If they can’t do the work in the classroom, they don’t swim. If things have not changed over the years
Studies of IVY athletes have shown that their grades are above the norm for the student body as a whole. This is no great surprise since in order to participate they must do the classroom work and they obviously have the ability given the academic profile of the typical swim team.
Congrats to Koya Osada and his family! Koya you will be a great addition to the school and its swim program. Excited to see another great NC swimmer at the school. Kevin Tyrrell is creating a strong talented group of swimmers at Harvard! Go Crimson!