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Chris Smith has announced he will join the University of Virginia’s stacked recruiting class of 2025, adding even more breaststroke depth to the Hoos. Smith represents South Africa and holds the World Junior Record in the 50 breaststroke (SCM).
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Before this year, none of the announced recruits to UVA’s class of 2025 were breaststroke specialists. That started to change after the calendar turned to the new year. In January, we reported on the addition of Finnish breaststroke specialist Davin Lindholm. Smith is more sprint focused than Lindholm, meaning this class now has no glaring weaknesses on paper.
The highlight of Smith’s 2024 was his appearance at Short Course Worlds where he broke the 50 breaststroke World Junior Record in semifinals (25.66). In finals, he added just over a tenth to finish 8th overall (25.77). Smith also improved his time in the 100 breast, getting under 58 for the first time in prelims and finishing 14th overall (57.11). Leading off South Africa’s 4×50 mixed free relay, Smith also swam under his best time in the 50 free (21.80), though it doesn’t count as an official time.
Smith’s converted time in the 100 would place him #3 all-time in UVA history. His 200 breast abilities aren’t on the same level as his sprint events, but he saw huge improvement in the last year. In the 2024 edition of the South African Short Course Championships, his final time (2:13.91) was almost a ten second improvement from his performance just one year prior (2:23.81).
Converted Times (SCM → SCY)
- 50 breast – 25.66 → 23.11
- 100 breast – 57.11 → 51.45
- 200 breast – 2:13.91 → 2:00.63
- 50 free – 21.80 → 19.63 (mixed relay lead-off)
UVA competes in the Atlantic Coast Conference. The men have lagged behind the women’s success, only placing 5th last year, but the influx of next year’s recruiting class will be a huge help to the momentum being built in Charlottesville.
Smith’s converted time in the 100 breast would have earned him an A final berth at 2024 ACCs. Besides the 200 breast, the 50 free could also pan out as an individual event based on his mixed relay performance in Budapest.
In addition to Smith and Lindholm, UVA is bringing in five of SwimSwam’s Top 20 recruits for the Class of 2025: #1 Thomas Heilman, #2 Maximus Williamson, #4 Nathan Szobata, #9 Thomas Mercer, and #13 Blake Amlicke.
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What is this guys fit for his photo, the jean shorts as tight as a size 22 tech suit, and he just got out of bed
I remember when my school used to get good recruits from RSA. Who knew choosing Coley over Jonty would have negative longterm effects , certainly not Greg Byrne.
He dropped a second in the 100 breast just by swimming in the same pool after Gretchen. He’s gonna do fine at UVA.
What’s the success bar for 2026 NCAAs? I’d say top 6 or 7.
As fast as this incoming class is, I think you still need to give them a year or two to fully develop but hopefully they can start to break their way into the top 10 next year and move on up after that
Heilman, Williamson, King, Nicholas, Smith, Aikins should be real scorers… small group but pretty easy to see a sub-3:00 medley relay next year. 4×1 and 2×1 pretty good, too. At least some potential for scoring from others in the freshman class. If you’ve got a bunch of top 8 relays you’re usually finishing better than 10th so I’d put the goalpost a little higher.
I would hope that UVA could shoot for a top 6 or top 8 finish next year but I think they have a ton of swimmers on the cusp of scoring who could show up for 5-10 points or finish out of scoring range entirely.
Because of that, I could see them being 6th…or 12th. For example, just this year: King, Aikins, Nicholas are all just outside of scoring range in 100 back, King and Aikins are barely within scoring range in 200 back, Sergile is just out of range in 2IM and 2free.
Some of their recruits are in the exact same position. Chris Smith, for example, should be a great relay asset, but is still out of range… Read more »
I mean outside Heilman/Williamson, the incoming class doesnt have any scoring times that I notice (I am not counting these converted times just for consistency). Relays should be improved. I would say 6th would be the ceiling and maybe 10th-11th the floor.
He did NOT get a fit off
UVA Men will be 2028 & 2029 NCAA Champions.
If you weren’t a fan of UVA when they finished 18th, DON’T be a fan of them when they finish 11th 😈😤
Lmao.
“So anyway here’s why he’s actually going to Texas”