For more commitment articles, be sure to check out SwimSwam’s College Recruiting channel.
With his verbal commitment announced via a cartoon featuring his alter ego “Big Nose Man,” Ohio’s Joel Thatcher will be heading south to swim for The Savannah College of Art & Design in the NAIA next fall.
Thatcher is a senior at Mason High School, and was an integral part of the Comets’ 10th place team finish at the 2015 Ohio State High School Division I Championships last February. Thatcher finished 14th in the 200 free and fifth in the 500 free, and swam a leg on Mason’s fifth-place 400 free relay. He also swims under head coach Ken Heis at the Mason Manta Rays, where he has had a huge breakthrough over the last two years. This past summer, in particular, was one of giant strides; Thatcher earned Junior Nationals cuts in the 200m, 400m, and 1500m freestyles as well as the 400m IM.
Below are the progressions in his best events:
LONG COURSE |
2015 |
2014 |
2013 |
200m free | 1:54.08 | 2:00.12 | 2:08.28 |
400m free | 4:03.75 | 4:09.85 | 4:23.87 |
1500m free | 16:08.54 | 16:50.08 | 17:38.25 |
400m IM | 4:35.61 | 4:46.69 | 5:05.13 |
200m fly | 2:08.13 | 2:17.32 | 2:26.75 |
SHORT COURSE |
2015 |
2014 |
2013 |
200y free | 1:41.33 | 1:44.76 | 1:49.63 |
500y free | 4:29.95 | 4:39.70 | 4:45.55 |
1650y free | 16:08.17 | 16:10.86 | 16:24.39 |
400y IM | 4:00.47 | 4:04.61 | 4:20.73 |
Thatcher will fit nicely into the SCAD middle-distance group headed by NAIA national record-holder Joel Ax; the two Joels will have a year over overlap before the younger Thatcher will be counted on to take the reins. SCAD competes in the Bluegrass Mountain Conference, a swimming-only, coach-led conference dominated by Division II powerhouses Queens and Wingate and Division III powerhouse Johns Hopkins. Thatcher’s best 500 free and 400 IM would have made the A finals and his 200 free would have been B final-worth at the 2015 BMC Championships.
Thatcher took official visits to BYU, TCU and Miami (Ohio), but said he couldn’t pass up an opportunity to be an “artist-athlete” at SCAD while training under former World Champion sprinter Bill Pilczuk. “I think you can count on my starts getting faster!”
If you have a commitment to report, please send an email to [email protected]
Joel was on my trip to BYU, great kid and a hard worker! Good luck dude!!!