The California Golden Bears didn’t have to look any further than their own backyard to find breaststroke/IM specialist Carson Sand. The Castro Valley, California-native gave his verbal commitment to the University of California, Berkeley for the class of 2019.
Sand swims for East Bay Aquatics Association and Castro Valley High School. He was runner up in both the 100 breast (54.54) and 200 IM (1:50.11) at the 2014 NCS (California’s North Coast Section) Championships last May. The next day he turned around and popped a 1:59.82 in the 200y breast at the NCS Walk-On Meet.
This has been quite a year for Sand. He dropped 1.4 seconds in the 100 breast SCY, and 2.5 seconds in the 100 breast LCM. He also improved his 200y IM by 3 full seconds. Sand finished the 2013-14 season with new PBs in all his major events. His top times include:
| 200y breast: 1:59.82 | 200m breast 2:20.78 |
| 100y breast: 54.45 | 100m breast: 1:03.82 |
| 200y IM: 1:50.11 | 200m IM: 2:15.62 |
| 50y free: 21.19 | 50m free: 24.83 |
| 100y free: 47.01 | 100m free: 56.15 |
A lot has been said about Cal’s dominance in backstroke and butterfly, but the Golden Bears have been building a strong –and deep– breaststroke group over the last several years. While seniors Chuck Katis and Chris Leon will no longer be on the roster next year, Sand will be joining Connor Hoppe, Zach Stevens, and Hunter Cobleigh, all fellow Californian breaststrokers who have made Berkeley their home.
All these whiny comments about somebody else and not me, I am PLEADING for some attention. I am embarrassed.
“Don’t forget about me!!!!”
“Don’t forget to mention me!!!!”
“What about me????”
“No love for me???”
I should shut the f*ck up.
All these whiny comments about Nick Silverthorn or anyone else, PLEADING for some attention. I’d be embarrassed.
“Don’t forget about ******!!!!”
“Don’t forget to mention ********!!!!”
“What about *******????”
“No love for *******???”
Shut the f*ck up.
Welcome, Carson.
No love for Matt Whittle?!? Roll on you Bears!
I was going to say something along these lines. I wouldn’t doubt Matt Whittle. I think the upside on that kid is crazy.
Don’t forget local breaststroker Nick Silverthorn. Here he is competing against Carson Sand at 2014 NCS champs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZYyQf9Yunc
And in third place is Hank Poppe, rising breaststroke star and brother of current Stanford breaststroker Heidi Poppe.
1 Silverthorn SR 54.3
2 Sand JR 54.5
3 Poppe SO 54.8
This is just one year removed from this(2013 NCS):
1 Stumph SR 53.3
2 Wiser SR 53.5
3 Silverthorn JR 53.6
6 Sand SO 56.9
10 Poppe FR 58.1
Its good to be a swim fan in the bay area. Roll on you Bears!
Congratulations to Carson Sand.
Anne, I think it’s Connor Hoppe, and Nick Silverthorn merits mention as another fellow California breaststroker.
Yes, congrats to Carson…he’ll certainly add to the significant breaststroke group at Cal. Don’t forget, there’s also a guy named Seliskar coming in who swims 53.24/1:52.21. Those ain’t too shabby either 😉 Stevens and Whittle, with their 55’s, will certainly benefit from swimming with such a group… Hopefully, Carson will have a similar trajectory that Hunter Cobleigh already has…coming in with a 55.21 and swimming a 53.11 his first year in the 100, and going from a 1:59.+ to a 1:54.97 in the 200…in just one year. Good luck at Cal, Carson!