Top Scottish Prospect Mark Szaranek Verbally Commits to Michigan

Mark Szaranek from the Carengie Swim Club in Scotland has verbally committed to the Michigan Wolverines.

Szaranek has just the kind of speed and versatility that Mike Bottom built his NCAA Championship roster on. In long course, he’s been 23.9 and 51.6 in the 50 and 100 free; 1:53.2 in the 200 free;  57.6 in the 100 back; 54.2/2:03.7 in the 100 and 200 fly; and a 2:02.4 in the 200 IM.

Coming out of a Scottish region that has been developing a lot of Britain’s elite swimmers lately (Hannah Miley, Robbie Renwick, Craig Benson, etc.), but Szaranek is one of their hottest young men’s prospects.

Those long course times are good, but he’s equally good, if not better in many cases, in short course meters. That includes times like a 53.0 in the SCM 100 fly, and a 22.8 in the 50 free SCM.

He holds an astonishing total of 47 Scottish Age Records (they do single age records), with 22 in long course and 25 in short course. That includes most recently the 50 and 100 flys for 17-year olds in long course, as well as the 200 IM at the European Junior Championships from this summer; in addition to all of the age group records in the butterflies and IM races for 17-year olds.

Szaranek is of similar age to a standard American recruit: he just turned 18 in August, so one presumes he will have a chance to break even more records before coming to Ann Arbor.