Butterflier Armando Vegas Transfers to Indiana From Texas

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Armando Vegas has announced his decision to transfer from the University of Texas to Indiana University for his junior season, joining the Hoosiers’ class of 2024.

“I’m incredibly excited to announce that I will be continuing my academic and athletic careers at Indiana University. I want to thank my family, friends, and everyone else that has helped me reach this point. Looking forward to the next chapter!”

Vegas, a California native who grew up training with the Crow Canyon Country Club Sharks, is a butterfly specialist. He placed 3rd in the 200 fly in a dual meet against Southern Methodist University (1:45.88) during his sophomore season with Texas last year. He did not compete at the Big 12 Championships in 2021 or 2022.

Both of his lifetime best 100 and 200 butterfly times are from the 2022 American Short Course Championships in March. There, he blasted a Winter U.S. Open time of 47.28 to place 5th in the 100 fly and a Summer Nationals cut of 1:43.21 to place 3rd in the 200 fly. He also posted a lifetime best 500 free time of 4:33.75 to earn 8th place. 

He showed clear improvements while at Texas, taking nearly 3 seconds off his fastest 100 fly time since he committed to the Longhorns. Here are his best short course times when he committed to Texas in 2019 compared to his current lifetime best times:

Top SCY times:

• 100 fly – 47.28 
• 200 fly – 1:43.21 
• 100 back – 49.85r 
• 200 back – 1:49.87 
• 500 free – 4:33.75 

Vegas will be moving from the Big 12 to Bthe ig Ten where his lifetime best 200 fly time would have made the ‘A’ final at last season’s conference championships. He also would have placed 23rd in the 100 fly ‘C’ final. The Hoosiers have a dominant butterfly training group led by rising senior Brendan Burns who won the 200 fly and rising junior Tomer Frankel who placed 2nd in the 100 fly at the 2022 Big Ten Championships.

Vegas also had some strong backstroke races during his freshman season as a Longhorn when he posted his current best 100 back time at the 2020 Texas Hall of Fame Invite on a relay split. That same year in March, he swam a lifetime best 200 back time at Sectionals in Carlsbad.

The Big Ten Conference is faster than the Big 12 in Vegas’ best events so he would have been on the cusp of making the ‘C’ final in the 100 back (27th) and 200 back (25th), and a little ways off in the 500 free (31st) last season.

Indiana men are coming off their 4th Big Ten Conference Championships title win in the past six seasons under head coach Ray Looze.

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