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A Winter Juniors Championships East finalist and multiple GIAA state champion, Cooper McDonald of Alpharetta, Georgia has announced that he will be heading north to continue his college career, committing to Indiana University for the fall of 2024.
“I chose Indiana because it’s one of the top programs in the country, and the coaches supported me throughout the whole process. They illustrated their belief in me and the impact I can have on the program. Thanks to everyone who helped me reach this point. I couldn’t have done it without my parents and coaches, but especially my brother. I’m excited for 4 years in Bloomington, Go Hoosiers!”
At the Winter Juniors Championships last December, while representing Dynamo Aquatic Club, McDonald finished as a finalist in both the 500 free and 400 IM, hitting new lifetime bests in both races. His higher finish came in the IM, where he touched in eighteenth during finals with a time of 3:55.25. In the 500 he took twenty-first in 4:26.86.
Just over three months later, he lowered those times significantly while racing at the Southern Premier meet in March of this year. In the 500, he was over four seconds faster, taking third in 4:22.22. His time drop in the IM was even larger, with his third place time of 4:48.88 marking an improvement of nearly seven seconds in the event. He also added lifetime bests in the 200 free (1:36.47), 1650 free (15:14.31), 100 back (49.69), 200 back (1:45.50), and 200 fly (1:48.28).
Top SCY Times
- 200 free – 1:36.47
- 500 free – 4:22.22
- 1650 free – 15:14.31
- 400 IM – 3:48.88
McDonald’s distance freestyle prowess earned him recognition in SwimSwam’s 2024 “Best of the Rest” recruits and that’s where he’ll make his impact for the Hoosiers. Last season he would have boasted the program’s sixth fastest time in the 200 free and fifth fastest time in both the 500 free and 1650 free.
The addition of McDonald next season will also help to bolster a distance group that graduated it’s top performer, Mikey Calvillo, last season. This year senior, Warren Briggs is set to be the team’s top swimmer in the distance freestyle events. Briggs finished third in the 1650 free, sixth in the 500 free, and fifteenth in the 200 free at last year’s Big-10 Championships.
McDonald already boasts lifetime bests that are fast enough to score at the Big-10 Championships, with his times in the freestyle races all being on the edge of the B and C finals.
Indiana’s class of 2028 is already distance heavy, with multiple swimmers boasting strong times in those events. Joining McDonald next fall will be Ian Everett, Raekwon Noel, Wilson Tuttle, and Saadeddin Saadeddin.
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I wish you the best of luck., You’ll need if you follow through on that verbal young man.
Without Ahmed at IU anymore the kid should of followed his brother to asu
Also in the class of 24 for the Hoosiers is miroslav knedla which will be a massive boost with burns graduating
his SCM backstroke times convert to 21 mid/47 low/1:46 mid rn but those are a year old. i’d have to think a 24.6/53.2 lcm backstroker would at least convert to 20 high/45 low with heavy upside
I would say that SwimSwam convert system is really unreliable, try converting SCY national records to SCM or LCM, those times are absurd
Any conversion system becomes fuzzy around the edges. We’ve worked at ways to sort of ‘decay’ the algorithm as it approaches the limits, but then you wind up with a sort of subjective line where you have to acknowledge that the best SCY times ever are not actually a good comparison for the best LCM times ever.
So, we’ll keep looking at, but if someone thinks that they have a better conversion system that works well for both age groupers and pros, we’re definitely open to it.
He committed 6 months ago btw
yes he did he is our GA king! But nice to see you not hating on IU always seeing you hating on Cal😂
Bring a jacket!