The University of Tennessee received another verbal with the likes of Hayden Burns, a Tennessee native who will bring his freestyle times to the table for the 2014-2015 season.
Burns swims pretty solid times in the freestyle all-around, but his best events are the middle-distance swims. In the 200 yard freestyle his personal best time is a 1:39.17 which he at the Tennessee State Championships back in February of 2014.
Burns had some steady improvement over the last two years to get that time considering that in February of 2012 his personal best stood at 1:47.92. Burns dropped serious time in 2013 to take his 200 free down to a 1:40.07 by November. Following that he had a one-second drop in February of 2014 to swim the 1:39.17 that stands as his personal best time.
Burns has had success in the 400 freestyle as well, clocking in a 3:58.45 in the long course pool. In short course yards, Burns swims a 4:27.76 which is a great starting point for a middle-distance freestyler entering their college career. He’ll need to dip a few seconds under 4:20 in the next few years if he wants a hope of earning points for Tennessee which is completely plausible.
His distance-freestyle events are also something that the coaching staff at Tennessee will be able to work with. His 800 is a 8:23.33 whereas his 1000 is a 9:26.96 which he set back in March of 2013. Considering that he saw drastic improvement in his 200 freestyle after that time was set, it’s safe to say that Burns most likely can improve significantly on his 1000 free time.
He swam a 16:02.01 1650 freestyle back in December of 2013, a time which can be worked on in order to make it more competitive.
Overall, Burns brings solid times in the middle-distance freestyle events and potential to improve in the distance-freestyle events. He’ll be useful at Tennessee, which has been recruiting a lot of sprinters, as an important asset in the 4×200 freestyle relay in years to come.