There are few perennial top-5 type teams that wait longer to make their break in college recruiting on a regular basis than do the Texas A&M Aggies, but when they start to make moves, they make big moves.
Their latest verbal commitment is from Canadian Commonwealth Games team swimmer Sydney Pickrem: a dual U.S.-Canadian citizen who trains with the Clearwater Aquatic Team in Florida.
Pickrem’s best success internationally has been in the IM’s, and in short course that has translated to the expected versatile event lineup that she brings to the table for the Aggies.
Best times in yards:
- 50 free – 23.45
- 100 free – 50.69
- 200 free – 1:48.78
- 500 free – 4:50.79
- 100 back – 54.23
- 200 back – 1:56.69
- 100 breast – 1:02.53
- 200 breast – 2:11.36
- 100 fly – 55.51
- 200 IM – 1:58.15
- 400 IM – 4:19.13
In many cases, given how far Pickrem has progressed into the international ranks from Canada and her focus on long course, those times don’t come close to representing how good she truly is. Below are highlights of her long course times:
- 100 back – 1:02.43
- 200 back – 2:11.42
- 100 breast – 1:11.71
- 200 breast – 2:31.09
- 200 IM – 2:13.78
- 400 IM – 4:44.05
In short, Pickrem as a freshman, will at a bare minimum be a probable NCAA scorer in the 200 and 400 IM’s, with the possibility of scoring in a number of third events as well, including the 200 back and the 200 breast.
This summer, at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, Pickrem finished 8th in the 200 IM. She also swam at the 2014 Pan Pac Championships in the 200 IM, 400 IM, and 200 backstroke. She finished as high as 13th place, in the 200 IM, though as her second taper-meet of the summer she didn’t swim best times in the Gold Coast.
Pickrem joins Texas’ Lexie Lupton and fellow Floridian Claire Rasmus as the only A&M women’s commitments we’ve reported so far this fall. There are at least three others that we’re working to confirm, however, so their overall class rankings should start to climb in a hurry.
It is not a season for international meets so it would seem that there is nothing else happening in the swimming world. Just college meets and recruiting news. So it is understandable that most of the news seems to be dominated by recruiting news. Eventhough I don’t reside in the US, I am interested to know about the top recruits in the US.
If there is a meet somewhere like Europeans or other countries National Meets, you can count on SwimSwam to post.
I’ve seen 4 of the top 8 recruits in Texas announce commitments to A&M thus far.
Myself and all the parents I know are glued to swimswam to see the next commit. It is very entertaining to follow who is going where. For those of you that are complaining, choose a different website to look at. Don’t spoil the fun for the rest of us . Life must be so good for you all to complain on swimswam about future college stars commitments.
Go SwimSwim and keep up the great work!!!!!
You know, it could be because recruiting is in the news right now, as swimmers commit to colleges. College recruiting and early season college swimming are what’s going on right now. Beyond that, this site does cover big international meets. I appreciate the focus on college recruiting. I’ve also been around swimming long enough to know that no matter what SwimSwam does in its coverage, some folks will whine about it.
This is likely just me getting something off my chest, but this site seems to have turned into a college recruiting bulletin board. Every time I open it up there’s five new updates about who has verbally agreed to attend which college. The exact same stories appear on Swimming World. I feel as if I’m reading two versions of the same website.
Agreed – like how the New York Times has sections for Business, Politics, Arts & Culture, Opinion, etc, it would help a lot with the readability if every press release wasn’t just thrown on top of the same bucket.
floppy – those things exist. We invite you to explore the menus at the top of the website.
I myself am waiting for an offer from Phoenix University . I am busy doing extra kicking sets ( I have got 3 different sets of fins) to builsd up quads calves & a niceley turned ankle for my selfie in shorts .
But alas no offers have been forthcoming but when it does ……. I intend stand out from the crowd with my Onzie side tie yoga shorts . Girls your shorts are boring – how do you expect the Fashionistas to follow you with those daggy things on . I have seen better in People of Walmart.
It is all about the shorts.
A&M has some recruits coming on Halloween weekend as well. I’m sure we will see some commitments after that.