1:00 Breaststroker Sophia Zhang Verbally Commits to Harvard for 2020

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Sophia Zhang of Asphalt Green Unified Aquatics in New York, NY, has announced her verbal commitment to the admissions process* at Harvard for 2020.

TOP TIMES

  • 100y breast – 1:00.73
  • 200y breast – 2:12.35
  • 50y free – 23.80
  • 100y free – 51.73
  • 100y fly – 55.88
  • 200y fly – 2:00.53
  • 200y IM – 2:02.99

Zhang is one of the, if not the, best breaststroker(s) remaining in the high school class of 2020 on the girls’ side. She comes in with very strong times at both the 100 and 200 distance, considerably faster than Harvard’s top times last year (1:02.1/2:13.4) and with Ivy League A-final berths in both likely to come.

She’s also just off of the 59.9 it took to qualify for NCAAs last season, with a full year of high school left to get closer to that minute barrier.

Just like Dylan Rhee, another Harvard commit who she trains with at AGUA and goes to school with at Trinity, Zhang won the 100 breast and 200 IM at the 2019 Ivy Prep League Champs. This summer, she clocked a fifth-place finish in the 100 breast (1:09.74) at the 2019 Speedo Junior National Championships, while she was fifth in the 200 breast prelims (2:34.37) but was disqualified in the final.

She’ll join in Harvard’s class of 2024, with a couple other women confirmed: SOCAL Aquatics Association’s Mandy Brenner and Pleasanton Seahawk Claire Suen.

*IVY LEAGUE DISCLAIMER: A “verbal commitment” by a coach is not an offer of admission, as only the Admissions Office has that authority. An Ivy League coach can only commit his or her support in the admissions process. Moreover, an Ivy League Likely Letter is not an offer of admission to the university.

If you have a commitment to report, please send an email with a photo (landscape, or horizontal, looks best) and a quote to [email protected].

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swammer
4 years ago

Harvard’s top breaststroke times this past year were 59.3 and 2:08, which both made NCAA’s

Admin
Reply to  swammer
4 years ago

You may have missed the dateline, but this was written in October 2019. That means “last season” being referenced was the 2018-2019 season, where sophomore Jaycee Yegher led the team with a 1:02.19 in the 100 breaststroke.

She had a big breakout season and was the only Ivy Leaguer under 1 minute in the 2019-2020 season.

David Berkoff
4 years ago

Fight fiercely Hahvahd.

About Karl Ortegon

Karl Ortegon

Karl Ortegon studied sociology at Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT, graduating in May of 2018. He began swimming on a club team in first grade and swam four years for Wesleyan.

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