Grady Heath, a senior at Clay High School in Green Cove Springs, Florida, has signed an NLI to swim for University of Florida beginning in the fall of 2015. Heath’s club team is Bolles School Sharks, making him the second Clay-Bolles sprinter in a row to head to Gainesville. Heath will be following in the footsteps of Caeleb Dressel, the 2015 SEC Freshman of the Year, who was also a Clay-Bolles sprinter.
Heath placed fifth in the 200 free and third in the 100 free at the 2014 FHSAA Class 2A Championships in November. His best times are:
50y free – 21.24
100y free – 45.90
200y free – 1:39.72
500y free – 4:35.00
Heath could be poised for a great collegiate career. He has improved quite a bit in the last two years. He dropped 8 seconds from 2013 to 2014 in his 200 free, 2.1 in the 100 free, and .8 in the 50. Also in the past year or so he has improved 16 seconds in the 500 free, 2 in the 100 back, and nearly 11 in the 200 back.
Mike won the 200 free in 1984 at Cleveland State. Tori was on the ’84 team with him. Long ago….. 🙂
Congratulations to Grady! An incredibly hard worker and fantastic person to coach. Good luck!
Clark Smith’s mother is Tori Trees if I remember correctly
He’s also following in the footsteps of his father, Gator great and four-time 1984 Olympic medalist and member of the famed “Grossbusters” 800 free relay, Mike Heath. He is the spitting image of his father at that age. His mother also swam at Florida.
It’ll be interesting to see how he develops; he has kind of an identical story to Clark Smith where one parent was a 1984 Olympian and an individual NCAA champion and met the other parent while on the college swim team together.
Who is Clark Smith’s Olympian parent? Great to see the generations of swimming!