Wesley McGovern of Tampa Bay Aquatics has made a verbal commitment to swim at Purdue University beginning in the fall of 2015.
The Newsome High School senior is primarily a mid-distance freestyler/backstroker. He finished third in the 500 free and third in the 100 back at the 2013 Florida High School Class 4A Championships. At Summer Junior Nationals in Irvine he competed in the 200 free and 100/200 back, placing 11th in the 100m back.
His top times over the last two seasons include:
100y back: 50.37 100m back: 57.57
200y back: 1:48.52 200m back: 2:06.38
200y free: 1:40.16 200m free: 1:54.55
500y free: 4:28.01 400m free: 4:06.73
1000y free: 9:33.98 800m free: 8:43.25
200y IM: 1:54.57 200m IM: 2:08.17
It took nearly an NCAA “B” cut to make it back for a second swim in the 500 at B1G Championships last year; McGovern is about five seconds away from the cutoff. However his current 200 back time is only about a half-second off the mark, and his 100 is 1.3 seconds shy. These latter two events could have used a larger Purdue presence: only Stephen Seliskar made the 100 back, and not one Boilermaker made an appearance in the 200 back final.
McGovern will join future teammate Joey Gardner, another recent commit.
Congrats Wesley! Congrats Boilers!