Cadence Fort, a high school junior at Estero High School in Estero, Florida, has committed to join Florida State in the fall of 2023. Fort does her club swimming with Gulf Coast Swim Team south of Fort Meyers, Florida.
Fort is a distance freestyle specialist who has had significant success both in the pool and in open water. At the 2021 Open Water Nationals, Fort finished 6th in the 10k to earn a spot on the US National Team. In the pool, Fort is a Winter Juniors qualifier in the 1000 free in short course and the 800 and 1500 in long course. She also holds a Futures qualifying time in the long course 400 free.
Fort’s lifetime bests include:
- 1650 Y Free: 16:53.47
- 1000 Y Free: 9:56.89
- 500 Y Free: 4:54.77
- 200 Y Free: 1:52.83
She projects to bring some much-needed depth to the Seminole distance group when she arrives in Tallahassee in a year and a half. This season, Florida State’s top miler swam a 16:49.98 at ACC’s, good for 21st. Between the 500 and 1650 at ACC’s, Florida State scored only 9 points, with a 23rd place finish in the 500 and 21st, 23rd and 24th place finishes in the 1650.
Fort’s lifetime best in the mile would have finished 24th at ACC’s this season, while she will need to drop a bit in the 500 to score points at ACC’s, as 4:51.51 qualified 24th overall. The 24th place qualifier was FSU freshman Sydney Boals, who will have two seasons of overlap with Fort in Tallahassee.
Fort joins Hailey Heldenbrand, Sarah Beth Cathcart, Annie Wohlgemuth and Gabrielle Goodwin in Florida State’s class of 2027.