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Tori Tafuto, the youngest of the famous Tafuto swimming siblings in Hershey, Pennsylvania, has verbally committed to Penn State University. A member of the high school class of 2021, Tafuto will join the Nittany Lions’ recruiting class of 2025.
Tafuto’s older siblings Vinny, Vivian, and Sally have gone on to swim at Michigan, Virginia, and Ohio State, respectively. They all follow in the footsteps of their mother Julie (Krosnowski), who swam at Drexel from 1984-1988.
Tori’s journey won’t take her far from home: the Hershey Aquatic Club swimmer lives only about 100 miles from the Penn State campus.Ha
At the 2020 Pennsylvania AAA High School State Championship meet, representing Central Pennsylvania power Hershey High School, Tafuto finished 10th in the 50 free, swimming 23.83. That time was just short of her personal best swum at her district meet a few weeks earlier (23.72).
She also split 23.27 on a 200 medley relay anchor for Hershey, and 52.04 on a 400 free relay leadoff in a prelims-cum-finals session after the meet was shortened as a result of coronavirus concerns.
Her relay swims have been among her best: she also split 23.00 on a 200 medley relay anchor at her district meet, and as a sophomore split 51.30 on a 400 free relay anchor.
Her next-best event is the 100 fly, though Tafuto focuses heavily on the sprint freestyles.
Best Times in Yards:
- 50 free – 23.72 (23.00 relay split)
- 100 free – 52.04 (51.30 relay split)
- 100 fly – 59.14
For the Penn State women, who placed 8th out of 12 teams at the 2020 Big Ten Championships, the sprint freestyles were a strength last season. That includes a 6th-place finish in the 200 free relay that outpaced their overall team performance at the meet. Junior Madeleine Cooke qualified for the A final of the 50 free, making her one of only 3 Nittany Lions to finish in the top 8 of an event individually.
Last season, 22.97 was good enough to qualify for the A final in the 50 free at the Big Ten Championships.
She joins a Penn State class of 2021 that includes Molly Pedersen, Shelby Kahn, Molly Carson, and the headliner of the group so far California Southern Section Champion Marly Lough, who has best times of 23.5/50.1/1:49.0 in the freestyle events.
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