Yale Bulldogs add Olympic Trials Qualifier Crash Ackerly, #15 in the Class of 2025

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Heading north, up the Atlantic seaboard next fall to New Haven, Connecticut, is Virginia native Crash Ackerly. Ackerly, who graduated from Maggie L Walker Governors School in Richmond, VA, this past spring, has verbally committed to the application process* at Yale University. He is the #15 ranked recruit in the class of 2025, after opting to take a gap year, in which he told SwimSwam he will be “training in Taiwan for 6-9 months as part of a Mandarin study program with National Taiwan University”. Ackerly chose to study in Taiwan to improve his Mandarin, which he has been studying since the age of seven, with his piano teacher.

About his commitment to Yale, Ackerly said,

Ackerly, swimming for his club team Nova of Virginia Aquatics, most recently competed at the 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials, where he swam a personal best of 2:00.86 in the 200 back, placing 36th overall. His previous best stood at 2:01.44, which he swam at the NCSA Spring Championships in March of this year.

That time of 2:01.44 earned him second place in the event after having swum a personal best of 1:42.89 in the prelims. (Prelims were conducted in SCY, finals in LCM), In addition to his silver medal-winning performance in the 200 back, Ackerly placed 5th in the finals of 100 back (56.58), and 7th in both the 200 IM (2:06.69) and 100 fly (55.72) each of which stands as a personal best except for the 100 back which he time trialed at the Olympic Trials to a new best of 56.14.

Many of his personal best in yards also came from this meet. In addition to the aforementioned 200 back time, Ackerly rewrote his own personal record book in the 50 back (22.22), 100 back (47.57), 50 fly (22.19), 100 fly (47.96), and 200 IM (1:47.73).

Earlier in the year, competing at the VHSL Class 3 State Championships for his high school, Ackerly placed first in the prelims of the 100 back in a time of 48.75 but was ultimately DQed in the final. In the 100 free, however, he moved up from 4th in prelims (48.87) to swim a personal best of 45.04, which not only stands as a new personal best but was good for second place, behind David King‘s 43.92. King is the #8 ranked recruit in the class of 2024 and is a UVA commit.

In addition to his trip to the podium, Ackerly was part of his team’s 7th-place 400 Free Relay, splitting 45.13. He also led off his school’s bronze medal-winning 200 Medley Relay in 22.40, combining with Benjamin Li (28.56), Reid Winters (24.75), and Jason Pringle (23.34) for a time of 1:39.02.

Best Yards Times 

• 100 Back – 47.57
• 200 Back – 1:42.89
• 100 Fly – 47.96
• 200 Fly – 1:48.69
• 200 IM – 1:47.73

After studying and training in Taiwan, Ackerly will join a Yale program that finished third at the most recent Ivy League Championships. Under the leadership of Jim Henry, who has been the men’s head coach since the fall of 2017, Yale scored 1030 points at Ivies.

In the 200 back, Yale placed three swimmers into the final, albeit all three were in the B-final. First-year Mak Nurkic Kacapor won the B-final in 1:44.16, ahead of teammates Christian Lee (12th – 1:47.93) and Jed Jones (16th – 1:49.47). Similarly, in the 100 back, Yale was locked out of the A-Final with Nurkic Kacapor taking 3rd in the B-Final in a time of 48.08 ahead of sophomore Lucius Brown‘s 48.16.

Despite having a year to improve, Ackerly’s arrival on campus will immediately improve Yale’s prospects at their championships. His best time in the 200 back (1:42.89) would have been 3rd in prelims. His 100 back would have just squeaked into the A-final in 8th, as it took 47.61 to make top eight. His likeliest 3rd event would be the 200 IM, where his PB would place him 14th in prelims.

Expected to join Ackerly on campus next Fall are Ethan Guo, Andrew Jin and Henry Webb.

*Note: A verbal commitment between an Ivy League coach and a prospective student-athlete is not an offer of admission, as only the Admission Office has that authority. The coach can only commit his or her support in the admission process. Ivy League Admission Offices do not issue “Likely Letters” before October 1 of the prospective student-athlete’s senior year of high school. The Likely Letter, while issued after an initial read of the student’s application, is not an offer of admission to the university.

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