Kyra Sarazen of the Seacoast Swimming Association in New Hampshire has verbally committed to the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.
Sarazen is primarily a backstroker, with good freestyle and IM times to support. In yards, her bests are:
- 50 free – 24.03
- 100 free – 51.74
- 200 free -1:49.89
- 100 back – 55.47
- 200 back – 1:58.19
- 200 IM – 2:02.24
She immediately has ACC-scoring potential in the 200 backstroke, especially given that she dropped a full second off of her lifetime best even in a multiple-taper short course yards season.
While Notre Dame did graduate their best backstroker Kelly Ryan after last season, and will lose another very good backstroker Courtney Whyte after this one, the team still has good depth for the future in it’s backstroke group. That includes current junior Cat Galletti, current sophomore Catherine Mulquin, and current sophomore Katie Miller, the latter of whom was the 5th-fastest 200 backstroker in the ACC last year.
None of those three span the 100 and 200 quite as well as Sarazen does however (though we expect Miller to make a lot of progress in the 100 in the 2014-2015 season).
The 5’5″ high school senior is also good enough in the freestyle events to swim on at least one of those relays in her first season in South Bend, and is a very good 200 IM’er as well.
She swims for St. Thomas Aquinas High School in New Hampshire, and at last year’s state championship meet she broke records in both the 200 IM (2:03.71) and the 100 back (55.4). Specifically, that 100 back was done in the race after winning a title as part of STA’s 200 free relay.