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The University of Tennessee men’s swimming and diving team just got a verbal commitment from Australia’s Braga Verhage, a top sprinter from West Coast Swimming Club in Perth.
“I’m incredibly excited to join Tennessee. With its great combination of athletics and studies I believe it’s a place where I can reach my goals. It has fantastic facilities and an awesome coaching team. Go Vols!”
Verhage is primarily a sprint freestyler, 100 backstroker and 100 butterflier. At the recent Western Australia State Teams Age Short Course meet in Canberra, Verhage put up best times in the the 50 SCM free (22.18), 50 SCM back (25.01), 50 SCM fly (23.47), and 100 SCM fly (53.61). He was fourth in the 50 free at Australian Age Group Nationals this summer in the long course pool, clocking a swift 23.19. Verhage’s converted short course meters times amount to:
| SCM | SCY | |
| 50 free | 22.18 | 19.98 |
| 100 free | 50.40 | 45.40 |
| 50 back | 25.01 | 22.53 |
| 100 back | 55.07 | 49.61 |
| 50 fly | 23.47 | 21.14 |
| 100 fly | 53.61 | 48.29 |
Verhage is the second sprint star that head coach Matt Kredich has mined from Australia; Luke Percy spent a year at Knoxville as a Volunteer in 2013-14 before deciding to head back to his native Southport Olympic Swimming Club. Verhage will be an immediate-impact player for the Vols, adding strength to the sprints and relay events, and is a great complement to the already- committed members of the class of 2020:
- Alec Connolly – sprint free/back
- Nathan Murray – back/IM/mid-distance free
- Taylor Abbott – distance free
If you have a commitment to report, please send an email to [email protected]
Commonwombats comments are typical of the mainstream swimming fraternity in Australia which assumes that Long Course swimming is the main game. No problem for many, but this model doesn’t suit everyone and Verhage is an example. He, weight for age, is unbeatable in Australia in the Short Course sprint. Prior to a knee injury Verhage was National Short Course Age Champion across remarkably all 4 strokes. This year all but breast stroke. Watch this man, he will do well in the US system.
Earth to Swimdoc; I had the likes of Cal-Berkeley and Stanford in mind as the exceptions hence I gave the figure of 95% to cover those few great academic schools that are also swim “powers”. You clearly didn’t read particularly accurately.
Gastor, the fact is that LCM IS the main game in swimming outside the “bubble” of NCAA/US schools. With the decline in stature of the World Cup, there is far less scope internationally for the SC specialist who cannot transfer competently to LC.
With regards to this young man, the fact is that he’s competitive rather than stellar at Age group over LCM. The AUS teams sent to both World Juniors and Comm Youth Games were hardly “earthshattering” in quality below the layer of cream at the very top but Verhage did not make either of these.
In essence, the Vols are getting someone who may certainly be valuable to them but highly debateable that they have a superstar.… Read more »
Commonwombat: last question first: Your points are not unreasonable, just sweeping generalisations. I suspect only time will tell about the quality of any particular athlete and the value of their particular decision on combinations of education versus sport versus career.
I would also note that the quality of the Australian Team at the World Juniors was self evident. The Commonwealth Youth Games selection and performance were “interesting”.
I would like to know the statistics around elite Australian athletes in swimming and performance in secondary and tertiary education, something the US system (in the main) demands of its college athletes, measures and advertises outcomes.
For the average collegiate swimmer; their swimming horizons do not realistically extend beyond NCAA & for them, SCY is “the be all and end all”. For many, swimming is very much the sideline to their education. In no way am I critical of them or anyone having that approach.
However for those with wider aspirations, be they domestic or international, quantifying these performances into metres is an incredibly inexact science no matter what the authors of the various “calculators” may claim.
For international swimmers, the questions I’ve posed are very valid. The fact is that you are now seeing very few swimmers in the NCAA from the major Euro nations (GBR/NED/FRA/ITA) let alone AUS ….. and next to none of… Read more »
Targett was a monster. Split 18.1/40.4 on free relays at his peak. This kid has great sprint fly potential, though. 21.1 is about what Conger was around his age. Should be a great relay value for Tennessee.
He was a good Australian in the ncaa right
TBH, it is extremely unlikely that any top-line Australian swimmers will take the NCAA route. IF they are seriously wishing to pursue tertiary education, then the leading AUS universities are of a standard superior to 95% of the top NCAA “swim” schools. Whilst there is NO collegiate sport system in AUS, almost all universities are accommodating of elite student/athletes.
In the post WW2 era, through the 50’s and 60’s there was a line of top level AUS male swimmers who took the US collegiate route starting with John Marshall & John Davies then the likes of Murray Rose, Jon Henricks through to Bob Windle. This started to dry up in the 70’s with the last “top-liner” to go collegiate being… Read more »
Ever heard of Cal Berkeley and Stanford? I’ve heard they’re decent schools. They may have a swimmer or two, too.