Fred Abramyan; Top Danish Breaststroker Sign with USC

Shortly after writing that CIF Southern Sectional dual sprint champion Fred Abramyan was unsigned this morning, we found out that shortly before the kickoff of this meet, Abramyan actually signed his National Letter of Intent to swim at USC for Dave Salo next year. That’s one of two recent signings for the Trojans that also included a badly-needed breaststroker.

He was a good recruit, with a 45.0 as a junior, but since then he’s been under 45 at two different meets and has catapulted himself into the elite sprint level. That’s thanks to bests this weekend of 20.44 and 44.43 to take dual division 1 titles. He also split a 19.99 anchor on Loyola’s 200 free relay, one of only two swimmers in the meet to break that barrier.

This is important for the Trojans, as beyond Vlad Morizov, they are fairly thin in the sprint freestyles. Abramyan’s 100 time will be faster than all-but-5 returning Trojans next year, and he seems to have a lot of potential to continue improving.

They’ve also filled another massive hole in their medley relays, with the signing of Danish breaststroker Morten Klarskov. He’s very-much a sprint breaststroker, with a best of 1:03.59 in the 100 breaststroke in long course; and he’s actually even better in short course with a 59.65. That will put him somewhere in the 53-mid range in yards, which is as fast as the Trojans’ best breaststroker Sergio Lujan-Rivera was last year. It seems as though his impressive success of Dave Salo’s international-level breaststrokers is finally paying off for him in recruiting.

Klarskov is also a solid 200 breaststroker with a 2:18.35 best (again – better in short course with a 2:08). He’s a bit older than the standard American freshman, but based on his times is still well on the upswing of his improvement, having gone all of his best breaststroke times this spring. He’s the number-two rated breaststroker in a rising Denmark program in long course, and their best in short course.

He’s also got some free relay potential, with short course meters bests of 50.5 and 1:49.0 in the 100 and 200 freestyles. His third individual event, though, will be the 200 IM, where he’s swum a 1:57.6 in short course meters, which is around a 1:45 converted to yards.

The Trojan men look to finally be adding the depth that they’ve been missing and that is so evident in their dual meets against their Pac 12 rivals.