A Quartet of GAAC Seniors Announces D1 Commitments for 2016-17

For more commitment articles, be sure to check out SwimSwam’s College Recruiting channel.

Four seniors from Germantown Academy Aquatic Club will continue their swimming and academic careers at the NCAA Division I level next year: Ryan Torie (North Carolina), Lauren Henasey (Georgetown), McKensie Meyer (Villanova), and Tommy Whitman (Towson). All four swim at the Fort Washington, PA, club under the direction of head coach Jeff Thompson and high-performance coach Donny Brush.

Ryan Torie – University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

“I knew from the moment I walked on campus that UNC was a very special place. It offers the best combination of a first-class education, amazing coaching, and a fantastic team atmosphere. Go Tar Heels!”

Torie, a two-time USA Swimming Scholastic All-American from Springside Chestnut Hill Academy, is a sprinter who garnered attention when he broke a 35-year-old Germantown Academy pool record earlier this year. Representing his school at the 115th Eastern Interscholastic Swimming & Diving Championships in February, Torie tied for second in the 50 free (20.91) and placed third in the 100 free (45.93), accounting for all of Springside Chestnut Hill’s points. A Winter Nationals qualifier in the 50 free and a Winter Juniors qualifier in the 100, Torie’s best times are:

  • 50 yard free – 20.68 (19.8 relay split)
  • 50 meter free – 23.55
  • 100 yard free – 45.63
  • 100 meter free – 52.33

Lauren Henasey – Georgetown University

Henasey is a senior at Germantown Academy, where she has twice received USA Swimming Scholastic All-America Team honors with 4.0 distinction. Henasey specializes in fly and distance free. She was third in the 100 fly (57.71) and seventh in the 500 free (5:06.95) at the Eastern Interscholastic Championships; she also swam fly on Germantown’s medley relay. Henasey’s best times are:

  • 100 yard fly – 56.61
  • 200 yard fly – 2:03.52
  • 500 yard free – 5:04.62
  • 1000 yard free – 10:25.80
  • 1650 yard free – 17:28.10
  • 400 yard IM – 4:31.53

Henasey is a nice pick-up for head coach Jamie Holder’s Hoyas; she would have made the A finals of the 100/200 fly and 400 IM, and scored in the top 8 of the 1650 free, at the 2015 Big East conference championships.

McKensie Meyer – Villanova University

Meyer attends Germantown Academy where she specializes in butterfly and IM. At Eastern Interscholastic Championships, she scored points for GA with a sixth-place finish in the 100 fly (59.10), a seventh in the 200 IM (2:11.53), and she led off Germantown’s 200 medley relay. Meyer’s top times are:

  • 100 yard fly – 58.11
  • 200 yard fly – 2:10.10
  • 200 yard IM – 2:11.03
  • 400 yard IM – 4:37.21

Villanova won the 2015 Big East conference championships over Georgetown by more than 220 points. The Wildcats dominated the butterfly events, and Meyer would have added to the score with B-final appearances in the 100/200 fly had she swum her best times in prelims. She also would have made the B final in the 400 IM and been first alternate in the 200 IM.

Tommy Whitman – Towson University

Whitman is a senior at Germantown Academy. We wrote about him in detail earlier this month.

If you have a commitment to report, please send an email to [email protected]

 

6
Leave a Reply

Subscribe
Notify of

6 Comments
newest
oldest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Kacey O'Brien
8 years ago

Haters gotta hate.

GABV/GAGV
Reply to  Kacey O'Brien
8 years ago

Let the truth be told- the school never made a formal statement of why one of the most legendary swim coaches of all time was forced to retire and treated horriblly on the way out after 47 years of producing some of the greatest swimmers and teams in the sports history. Well here it is

A whack job parent (one who makes dance moms look normal) complained of her son being bullied in the locker room-everyone at the school knew her motive was to have the best boy on the team and her sons competition eliminated because she was SOOO
insanely NUTZ!! The schools AD who was so jealous of the coaches 47 year success used this as an… Read more »

GA Alumni
8 years ago

Oh the mighty have fallen. Countless Olympians, World record holders, hundreds of high school all-americans, NCAA champions, gold level team and this club and school swim program has been reduced to a mediocre program at best- the only thing the school can brag about is a kid that goes to Chestnut Hill-that’s a disgrace. There are 2 boys with olympic trial cuts who go to school there and don’t even swim for high school team or the club. There has to be a lot going wrong. Such a tremendous disappointment that such a power-house can be reduced to sub par club in under 1 year with no talent on the radar.

DRAGONS
8 years ago

We must give credit where credit is due. Ryan Torie was trained at the UDAC swim machine home of the best 15-18 year old group of boys in the country. This kid is fast but didn’t even make the A relay there. UDAC is the beast of the east, GAAC is a thing of the past.

Swimmer
Reply to  DRAGONS
8 years ago

While it is true that Ryan was trained at UDAC previously, he saw major time drops once he began training at GA. He was 46.9 his sophomore year of high school in the 100 free and 45.6 his junior year. That is a pretty significant drop over the course of one year. Also, as far as I can tell he didn’t train at all during the spring or summer between sophomore and junior year at UDAC and began training at GA the fall of his junior year. In addition, only one swimmer from UDAC has a Winter Nationals cut in the 50 free, so how can you say that he doesn’t make the A relay? UDAC is an extremely strong… Read more »

Indiana Parent
8 years ago

Congratulations to those kids.
If Jeff Thompson is operating in PA like he did in Indiana, those kids were developed by other people and Jeff takes the credit. Good luck Germantown!

About Anne Lepesant

Anne Lepesant

Anne Lepesant is the mother of four daughters, all of whom swam in college. With an undergraduate degree from Princeton (where she was an all-Ivy tennis player) and an MBA from INSEAD, she worked for many years in the financial industry, both in France and the U.S. Anne is currently …

Read More »