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Winter Juniors qualifier Cole Nelson has announced his verbal commitment to swim and study at The United States Naval Academy beginning in the fall of 2027. He publicized the news on SwimCloud, writing:
I am honored to announce my verbal commitment to continue my academic and athletic career and have the opportunity to serve my country at The United States Naval Academy! First and foremost, I give all glory to God for blessing me with this opportunity. I’m incredibly thankful to my family and friends for their unwavering support throughout my entire swimming career. Thank you to all of the Nova Coaching staff for their hard work and dedication for helping me reach this point, and a special thank you to Coach David for always believing in me and seeing my potential. I am also thankful to Coach Josh Laux for helping guide me through the recruiting process and always being by my side. Finally thank you to Coach Bill, Jake, and Mark for this amazing opportunity, I’m super excited for what’s to come, GO NAVY! BEAT ARMY!
A rising senior at Freeman High School in Virginia, Nelson has been a member of the school’s varsity swimming team since his freshman year. He also trains year-round with NOVA of Virginia Aquatics, where he primarily specializes in distance freestyle.
Over the course of the 2025-26 short course season, Nelson dropped over two seconds in both the 500 and 1650 free and a full second in the 200 free. He set the majority of his current PBs at the NCSA Spring Championships in March, where he placed 12th in the 1650 free (15:30.68), 15th in the 500 free (4:26.01), and 16th in the 200 free (1:38.71), while also finishing 15th in the 1000 free (9:16.91) and 59th in the 100 free (46.76). A year prior at the same meet, he had his highest placements; he touched sixth in the 1000 free (9:09.86), 10th in the 1650 free (15:33.19), and 13th in the 500 free (4:28.42).
At the high school level, Nelson has qualified for the Virginia High School League (VHSL) 5A State Championships each year of his career so far. This past season, he finished sixth in the 500 free and ninth in the 200 free after finishing runner-up in the 500 free and fourth in the 200 free as a sophomore, and fourth in the 200 free as a freshman.
Nelson is also a two-time Winter Juniors – West qualifier. His best placement across the 2024 and 2025 iterations of the meet came this past December, when he touched 13th in the 1000 free, his first time cracking the top 40.
Top SCY Times:
- 200 Freestyle: 1:38.71
- 500 Freestyle: 4:26.01
- 1650 Freestyle: 15:30.68
A Division I Mid-Major program, Army competes in the Patriot League, with the men’s team winning this past season’s conference championship. Nelson’s current career bests would have placed fifth in the 1650 free timed final and made the ‘B’ finals in the 200 and 500 free, already putting him in position to be an immediate contributor with two full seasons of training still ahead before his first conference meet.
Nelson joins Tristan Furlow, Thomas Smith, Alexander Ivascu, Zachary Mcnabb, Camp Hartman, Ryan Baldwin, Alex Jungbluth, and Parker Efird in verbally committing to Navy’s class of 2031.
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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