The University of North Carolina adds one female and male to their verbal commitments this fall. Both swimmers area from the East Coast and will be making the move to Chapel Hill this fall to swim for Rich DeSelm and his staff.
Henry Campbell is a 2012 Olympic Trials Qualifier, from Manassas, Virginia. Swimming for the QDD Swim Team, Campbell is primarily a long freestyle and IM specialists, plus can be plugged into the breaststroke events.
“I chose North Carolina for a lot of reasons,” Campbell said. “One of the most important was the team chemistry; I felt that the team got along really well and would be a great group to be a part of. I am a big fan of the coaching staff and believe that they will be able to take me to the next level.”
His bests short course yards include 1:39.83/4:19.93/9:13.42/15:26.16 in the 200 on up to the 1650 freestyle events.
He attended the 2013 American Short Course Championships down in Austin, Texas last March and had quite the showing. He finished 11th in the 200, 2nd in the 500, 3rd in the 1650, 23rd in the 100 breaststroke (BT: 59.56), 24th in the 200 breaststroke (BT: 2:09.58), 8th in the 200 IM (BT: 1:51.98), and 4th in the 400IM (BT: 3:54.61).
He was competing against mainly a pool of college swimmers from Texas A&M, Mizzou and Texas, and he did very well. His 200 freestyle, 1650 freestyle and 400 IM are already “B” final scoring potentially based on last years ACC Championships, plus his 500 freestyle best time puts him already right in the mix of the top 8 – 5th to be exact.
His long course times are equally as strong. With Junior or National level cuts in his primary events – 1:54.33/3:58.95/8:21.77/15:59.15 freestyle events and 2:07.08/4:26.88 medley events. He was top 8 in all those events this summer at the Speedo Championship Series (aka Sectionals), with an individual win in the 400 IM.
Katie Ford is a sprint freestyler and backstroker from Mount Lebanon Aqua Club, just outside the Pittsburg, Pennsylvania area. She’s been 23.35r/52.24r in the 50/100 freestyles, and 56.13/2:02.88 in the 100/200 backstrokes.
Swimming for her high school, Mt. Lebanon, she finished 3rd in the 50 freestyle and 5th in the 100 backstroke – the exact same finishes she had in 2012. Her 200 freestyle relay finished 6th, where she led off in 23.61, and the 400 freestyle relay in 10th, again leading off the relay and split 52.24.
She’s stronger short course than long course, with bests at 27/1:00 & 1:05/2:24 in her events LCM.
She’s not in scoring range yet at the ACC level, her closest races are in the 50 free and 200 backstroke at this point, but she is certainly in range to get there for the Tar Heels.