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Ava Kennedy has verbally committed to swim for the University of Georgia in the fall of 2021. She will stay close to home and become a 4th-generation Georgia Bulldog.
Once a bulldog always a bulldog… I am so excited and proud to announce my verbal commitment to the University of Georgia! I’m honored I get to continue my swimming and academic careers as a fourth generation bulldog. I would like to thank my coaches, family, and teammates as well as UGA swimming for giving me this amazing opportunity. GO DAWGS! 🐾
An Athens, Georgia native, Kennedy trains with the Athens Bulldog Swim Club under Harvey Humphries, who was a member of the University of Georgia staff until recently. She also attends, and swims for, Athens Academy locally.
In February, she finished 2nd at the Georgia 1-5A (small school) High School State Championship meet in the 50 yard free in 23.68 and placed 4th in the 100 free in 52.42. Her best times in each event are a little better than that.
Best Times in Yards:
- 50 free – 23.56
- 100 free – 52.11
- 200 free – 1:57.08
Kennedy is a real sprint freestyle specialist and does have a Winter Junior Championships cut in the 50 free in long course (26.87). The freestyle races are the events upon which Jack Bauerle has built Georgia into one of the country’s top women’s swimming programs, which included 3 NCAA Championships in 4 seasons in 2013, 2014, and 2016.
Kennedy’s best times as of now are not within SEC scoring range yet, but they are rapidly trending in that direction. During her junior season of high school alone, she swam the 8 fastest 100 yard freestyle times of her career, dropping her best time from 54.56 to 52.11. A similar assault on her 50 free best time saw her drop from a 24.65 to a 23.56 as a junior.
She is joined in the Bulldogs’ class of 2021 by US World Junior Championship team distance freestyler Rachel Stege, sprint freestyler and butterflier Elsa Fretz, sprint freestyler and butterflier Lily Gardner, South African butterflier and middle-distance freestyler Dune Coetzee, breaststroker Mary Martin, sprint freestyler and butterflier Hailey Galbraith, and sprint freestyler Briana Roberson. The class will serve to dramatically rebuild the Bulldogs’ sprint foundation after they graduate most of that group between last season and this coming season.
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4th generation? I’m assuming they were attending in the 19th century? Wild.
I’m assuming you aren’t a math major.
Fourth generation just means her great-grandparent attended. If she’s 17, she could easily have a great-grandparent who is in their 80s, meaning they were born in the 1930s, attending college in the 1950s.
great-grandparents in their 80s is highly unlikely, probably grandparents though
Not highly unlikely. She’s probably 16. She could easily have parents in their early 40s, grandparents in their early to mid 60s, and great grandparents in their mid to late 80s. The mean age for mothers having their first child in the 70s it was 21.4, and in the early 2000s, it was 25. Using those stats, it’s not highly unlikely at all.
I’d just be curious to know when the oldest generation graduated. Regardless congrats to her.