David Dingess of Walton High School in Marietta, Georgia has verbally committed to the Kentucky Wildcats, giving the team a new backstroke/butterfly option in the long term for their medley relays.
Dingess is a classic sprint backstroker/butterflier, with decent freestyle events on top. In yards, his best times are:
- 50 free – 21.15
- 100 free – 46.01
- 100 back – 50.24
- 100 fly – 49.64
Dingess is a developmental pickup for Lars Jorgensen and the Wildcats, and his time progressions are tantalizing. He swam the 7 fastest times of his career in the 100 fly during his junior season, in total improving from a 53.0 to a 49.6.
His year-to-year progression in that 100 fly:
- 8th grade – 57.98
- freshman – 56.3
- sophomore – 53.0
- junior – 49.6
that’s a solid year-over-year advancement, culminating with that junior season where he went from a “AAA” standard swimmer to a Winter Nationals qualifier in 12 months.
Dingess will immediately sit near the top of the Wildcats’ depth chart in both the 100 fly and 100 back – an area where they’ve had a lot of success developing swimmers in the last few years. If he continues on the same continued impressive progression that he’s had throughout his high school career, Dingess could find himself at the top of that depth chart.
He was 3rd in the 100 fly as a junior for Walton at the Georgia High School 6A State Championship meet (big schools) as part of their team-title winning effort. He hit his best taper 6 weeks later at the NASA Junior National Cup in Florida.