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Luke Mikesell of Clearfield, PA, has verbally committed to swim at NCAA Division II Indiana University of Pennsylvania (a Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference school) as a part of the 2024 class.
Of his commitment, he says:
“I am proud to announce my verbal commitment to continue my academic and athletic career at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. I am so excited to be a part of the IUP swimming family. Coach Villa and Coach Stoner run a great program and I look forward to having the opportunity to compete in the PSAC. Go Hawks!”
Mikesell swims for both Clearfield Area Junior-Senior High School and Clearfield YMCA. A major highlight of his time with the former, Mikesell won a touch-out in the 200 free this past season at the PIAA Championships. He was competing against the defending champion, Josiah Lauver of Bishop McDevitt. Mikesell, taking the gold, set a new state record by four hundredths with his time of 1:38.31 (only 0.20 seconds ahead of Lauver). As for his Y career, Mikesell finished 7th in the A final of the 200 free (1:39.90) and 12th in the B final of the 500 free (4:31.62) at the 2019 Short Course YMCA Nationals this past spring.
With one year of high school left to go, Mikesell’s top times are already faster than any of IUP’s best distance freestylers’ times. If he were a rising freshman for the 2019-2020 school year, he would be almost five seconds faster than the top 200 freestyler (Owen Martin, rising sophomore, 1:42.91) and 13.5 seconds faster than the top 500 freestyler (Martin again, 4:37.95). If Mikesell would have been on the Crimson Hawks’ team this past season (2018-2019), his best 200 and 500 free times would have taken the gold by a tenth of a second and by eight seconds — respectively — at the 2019 Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Championships. At the 2019 NCAA Division II Championship, Mikesell’s best times would have scraped into the A final and taken eighth in the 200, and would have qualified for the 500’s A final and taken fourth.
Top SCY times:
- 100 free = 45.85
- 200 free = 1:38.31
- 500 free = 4:24.52
- 100 fly = 50.88
- 200 fly = 1:54.66
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