Trio Of Jr. National Team Men Select Arizona, Tennessee, Indiana

With verbal commitments coming fast-and-furious tonight, keep up with them all on the category page here.

The flood gates have at least cracked a little on the men’s side of the talent pool, as three members of the 2012 U.S. Jr. Pan Pacs team have made their college decisions. Breaststroker Gage Crosby from Arkansas has chosen Arizona, open water National Teamer David Heron committed to Tennessee, and freestyler Jackson Miller from Las Lomas, California has committed to Indiana.

Crosby’s yards times in breaststrokes are solid, with bests of 56.95 and 2:05.04. Those times, however, are nowhere near representative of the weight of his verbal commitment the Eric Hansen and the Wildcats. In long course, at Jr. Pan Pacs, Crosby a 1:03.40 in the 100 breast and a 2:16.92 in the 200. That time in the 100 won the B-Final, and for the sake of comparison is just a tenth  behind USC commit Steven Stumph and Harvard commit Eric Ronda for the fastest long course time in the class. Crosby won the 4th heat of the 100 breaststroke at this year’s Olympic Trials.

At Arizona, Crosby will train with the newest future of USA breaststroking Kevin Cordes. Cordes in his first year in Tucson broke all four 18 & under National Age Group Records and won an NCAA title in the 100 breast.

Heron is a distance freestyler, and specifically a member of the US Open Water National Team and the defending 5km open water champion. He also won the Junior Pan Pac Champion this year in Hawaii. This commitment really isn’t a huge surprise, considering that he hails from Mission Viejo. There, he swam under the direct coaching of Tyler Fenwick, who began his tenure this year as an assistant at Tennessee.

Heron in the pool has bests of 4:30.59 in the 500 and a 15:39.90 in the 1650. He will fit in very well at Tennessee, where even before Fenwick’s arrival Matt Kredich established a tradition of kicking off every season with an open water race at UNC-Wilmington.

“Tennessee has great coaches and exceptional swimming facilities,” Heron said of his decision. “I’m proud to be part of a growing team that has a lot of potential.”

Miller is a sprint freestyler from Las Lomas High School and the Walnut Creek Aquabears. He will head to Indiana next year with bests of 20.99/45.12/1:36.40 in the 50/100/200 freestyles, which is exactly what the Hoosiers need: a swimmer who can come in and lock down their free relays for the next four years. Indiana has very good medleys, but they didn’t score a single free relay point at last year’s NCAA Championships.

He can really go up even further than the 200 too; at Junior Pan Pacs he swam every freestyle from the 50 to the 800, and won the B-Final in both the 200 (1:50.89) and 400 (3:55.33) freestyles in long course.

He is a phenomenal athlete, and is also a quarterback on Los Lomas’ football team. He’s currently 7-for-15 on passing attempts this season.

Indiana also added another Junior Nationals finalist today: Bob Glover from Millard South High School and the Greater Omaha Aquatics Team, where he swims for Tom Beck. Glover is a 49.92 in the 100 yard backstroke, and is equally good in long course. He was 7th in the 100 back at Junior Nationals this summer in a 57.46.