The Nebraska Huskers have dipped into the recruiting pool, getting a verbal commitment from Georgia backstroker Jackie Jeschke.
Jeschke comes from Augusta, GA, where she’s a member of the Aiken-Augusta Swim League. She’s already an Olympic Trials veteran, having competed in 2012 at the young age of 14, and she looks like she’ll be a big backstroking pickup for the Huskers.
Jeschke put up lifetime bests in both backstrokes at Winter Juniors last December. She’s also a pretty solid pickup through the mid-distance freestyle events and the 400 IM.
Jeschke’s Top Times
- 100 back: 56.10
- 200 back: 1:59.44
- 400 IM: 4:24.38
- 500 free: 4:59.80
The backstroke events will be a big boost to the Huskers, who graduate their top backstroker, Rebekah Land, after this season. Land was a C-finalist in both backstrokes at Big Tens, just missing scoring range in a deep conference. Jeschke comes in with top times not too far back of what Land went last year at Big Tens, so she’ll enter the conference with a real shot to score, given she can put together some drops as a freshman.
Although her 400 IM and 1000 free times are intriguing, Jeschke probably projects best as a 500 freestyler for her third event, at least in the college championship lineup. That would give her one event each day of Big Tens and let her focus on the backstrokes without swimming a double on any day.