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High school senior, sprinter, and artist Jake Litchfield has committed to the TCU Horned Frogs. An All-American at Fulshear High School near Houston, Litchfield will travel north to TCU for the fall of 2021.
Racing at Texas’ 5A State Championship meet last February as a junior, Litchfield finished 2nd in the 50 free in 20.60. That was the 5th-best 50 free overall across Texas’ two divisions of high school swimming. It also ranked him 51st nationally on NISCA’s high school All-America lists.
Litchfield also finished 7th in the 100 yard free at the 5A state meet in 46.83, though that wasn’t a best time for him – he’s been half-a-second better.
Best Times in Yards:
- 50 free – 20.60
- 100 free – 46.33
- 200 free – 1:46.94
- 100 fly – 51.09
Litchfield has the potential to make an immediate impact for TCU in the 50 free, but has some work to do to develop his second and third events.
This season, TCU’s top 5 swimmers in the 50 free swam times between 20.19 and 20.60 at the team’s mid-season Texas Hall of Fame Invitational. While basically all of TCU’s sprint group are underclassmen (non-seniors), he’s right in the mix for the Horned Frogs to step into the 200 free relay right away.
He’s already making progress in those secondary events. At Fulshear’s District Championship meet on Friday, the first round of the three-round Texas high school post-season, Litchfield won the 50 free in 20.78 and the 100 free in 46.23 – a best time by a tenth of a second.
At that meet, he also split 22.06 in a 50 fly on a 200 medley relay and 20.38 on a 200 free relay anchor.
He’s working on that third event as well – his best time of 51.09 in the 100 fly came in December of 2020. Since quarantines have lifted, he’s dropped almost a full second from his pre-pandemic best of 51.96.
Litchfield trains with the Fulshear Racing Swim Team.
A two-time USA Swimming Academic All-American, Litchfield is a talented artist who plans to major in graphic design. His goal is to become a comic artist or animator after college. Some of his work is below:
If you have a commitment to report, please send an email with a photo (landscape, or horizontal, looks best) and a quote to [email protected].
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Nice shark!
TCU ON THE RISE!
I hope so, but by the looks of it SMU is rising quickly under Rhodenbaugh. I hope both SMU and TCU rise together, but at the moment it looks like SMU is pulling away and fast.
“Looks like SMU is pulling away hard and fast”
SMU’s top 4 100 freestylers:
-43.26
-44.01
-44.32
-44.78
TCU’s top 4 100 freestylers:
-43.83
-44.07
-44.34
-44.44
SMU’s top in 100 of each other stroke:
-back 48.07
-breast 53.51
-fly 48.47
TCU’s top in 100 of each other stroke
-back 47.98
-breast 52.71
-fly 47.27
This is a representative sample, but…I don’t see any evidence that either team is “pulling away” from the other.
Season-best times give TCU a 9-point edge in a head-to-head dual, according to Swimulator, though SMU won the actual dual.
Feels to me like the two teams are “rising together,” as you said, more than one is “pulling away” from the other.
Am I missing something? Out of curiosity, I ran the meet through the Swimulator as you said, and the meet is almost a 100 point win for the Mustangs. Seems like TCU is good at the top of their roster and then they drop off very fast, while Rhodenbaugh is building a very solid team from top to bottom (of their conference roster).
Without seeing your inputs, hard to know if you’re missing something.
I took the lineup from the TCU-SMU meet (because that’s the one meet where they have a lineup in common, they were on the same season timing, and I presume both teams used pretty close to their ‘best entries’) but applied season-best times.
Head-to-Head calculates duals.
I’d also be curious which criteria you’re using to calculate depth.
SMU’s 3rd-best 100 butterflier this season has been 49.45. TCU has 4 swimmers better than that.
SMU’s 3rd-best 100 breaststroker this season has been 54.20. They’re definitely deeper than TCU there.
SMU’s 3rd-best 100 backstroker has been 49.15, TCU’s 49.50
SMU’s 3rd-best 100 freestyler has been 44.32, TCU’s has been 44.34, but TCU’s 4th is faster than SMU’s 4th.
The 200 yard races break similarly.
SMU is a little better in the IMs.
I’d agree with your statement that SMU is probably a little deeper than TCU right now, but I don’t think that means they’re “pulling away.” At best, to me, that neutralizes TCU’s advantage… Read more »
Dig the art! Congrats
What a great write-up!! Thanks so much!!
Thanks for including his art work Braden! Awesome stuff! Best of luck Jake!