Erica Wirth from New Providence, New Jersey has verbally committed to the North Carolina Tar Heels.
While Wirth hasn’t qualified for Nationals or Junior Nationals in short course yards, she’s done her best swimming to date in the long course pool – including an Olympic Trials cut in the 800 meter freestyle.
Best times in yards (meters):
- 200 free – 1:52.48* (2:07.06)
- 500 free – 4:57.64* (4:19.48 – 400m)
- 1000 free – 10:21.27 (8:58.95 – 800m)
- 1650 free – 17:06.31 (16:59.53 – 1500m)
Editor’s note: many of the New Jersey High School championship meet times didn’t find their way into the SWIMS database – so we’ve taken our best shot at her best yards times in the 200 and 500 frees above.
As alluded to above, Wirth’s short course times aren’t ones that would typically stand out in a class at a top-25 type program like North Carolina. However, a long course explosion in the summer of 2015 – she dropped 16 seconds in the 800, and an additional 7 – means that she could be due for a huge senior season.
Besides the raw time drops, Wirth got another confidence-boost this summer when she won the Greensboro, North Carolina Futures meet in the 800 free. That’s a meet that is designed to serve as a stepping stone between Sectional Championships and Junior Nationals.
Wirth swims for the Berkeley Aquatic Club and New Providence High School.
Wirth is the 6th member of the North Carolina recruiting class that has verbally committed via SwimSwam. Others include Brooke Bauer, Meghan Dupay, Bryanna Cameron, Eireni Moshos, and Kylie Mihok.