Patrick Conaton from the Badger Swim Club in New York State has verbally committed to the Stanford Cardinal.
Contaon is primarily a backstroker who has had a lot of success in long course. His 2:02.18 in the 200 meter back left him one spot shy of the Junior National Team (.18 seconds off of the 6th spot).
In yards, Conaton has been 49.6 and 1:47.1 in the 100 and 200 backstrokes, as well as a 1:51.52 in the 200 yard IM.
He’s also been 21.3/45.3/1:39.0 in the 50, 100, and 200 yard freestyles.
While Conaton will overlap with David Nolan, the defending NCAA Champion in the 100 back, for a year, when Nolan graduates, this backstroke group will look much thinner than it did the year past. Current sophomore Ryan Arata will be the incumbent for that group, but Stanford will be looking for more to join him and give it some depth. Conaton will be a start for that.
Ted Knapp’s newest commitment finished int he C-Final both at the 2012 Winter Nationals and the 2013 World Championship Trials.
He swims for John Collins at the Badger Swim Club and Dom Galimi at Fordham Prep: he has never lost the team state title, as his high school team has won three straight championships.
Conat0n joins an impressive Cardinal men’s class that includes Curtis Ogren, Andrew Liang, Liam Egan, and Wes Olmsted.
Congrats to Patrick who is also the son of Michael who swam at Stanford and whom I had the pleasure to coach at Cincinnati. Patrick also swims for John Collins a great coach and a true friend who may still owe me an ice cream from our days of betting on our relays at nationals
Jay Fitzgerald