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Kayde Cross, a USA Swimming Scholastic All-American from Ballwin, Missouri, has announced his verbal commitment to swim for the University of Texas beginning in 2021-22. Cross is a junior at Parkway South High School; he trains year-round with Parkway Swim Club. He will join Anthony Grimm (#1 on our list of top swimming recruits from the class of 2021), Luke Hobson (#19), and Nathan Quarterman in the Longhorn class of 2025.
“I’m proud to announce my verbal commitment to swim and study at the University of Texas. Choosing a college should have been more difficult; however, through the kindness, dedication, and amazing bond of the team and coaching staff, it made one of the most difficult decisions the easiest to make. A sincere thank you to my family, coaches and friends for the support throughout this incredible journey. Lastly, a sincere thank you to the University of Texas future teammates and coaching staff for believing in me and giving me this tremendous opportunity. 🤘🏼Hook ‘em !”
Cross specializes in back and free and holds Summer Juniors cuts or better in the 50/100 free and 100/200 back. He notched PBs in all four of those events in January at the 2020 Ozark Swimming Senior Short Course Championships, where he won the 100 free and 100/200 back and was runner-up in the 50 free. He competed at 2019 U.S. Open in the LCM 50/100 free and 100 back and swam the same lineup at Pro Swim Series Knoxville in January. So far this long course season he has already gone lifetime bests in the 100m free (52.34) and 100m back (57.57). Last summer, competing at Jenks Sectionals, he went PBs of 23.82 in the 50m free, 27.64 in the 50m back, 1:55.95 in the 200m free, and 2:15.26 in the 200m back.
Top SCY times:
- 50 back – 23.37
- 100 back – 49.06
- 200 back – 1:47.03
- 50 free – 20.86
- 100 free – 44.42
- 200 free – 1:41.09
Cross will overlap with Texas sprinters Daniel Krueger, Caspar Corbeau, and Cole Crane, all of whom have already been 20-flat or better heading into championship season. He will join a backstroke group that will have just graduated Austin Katz, but he will overlap with Jason Park and Ethan Harder.
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Great addition to the Longhorns.