Alabama Reels in Verbal from Olympic Trials Qualifier Gaby Van Brunt (2023)

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Free/fly/back sprinter Gaby Van Brunt from Savannah, Georgia has announced her intention to swim and study at the University of Alabama in the class of 2027. After a rocky start in which new head coach Margo Geer suffered an exodus of verbal commitments from the class of 2026, “the Tide” is starting to turn for ‘Bama who are getting one of the top talents in the South with Van Brunt. She wrote on social media:

“I am beyond excited to announce that I am going to continue my academic and swimming career at the University of Alabama! I would love to thank my family, friends, and coaches for getting me to this point! Roll Tide!!”

Van Brunt is a junior at St. Andrew’s School and does her year-round swimming with Georgia Coastal Aquatic Team. She qualified for Wave I at Olympic Trials this past summer, and that 1:00.49 in the 100m fly also won her an invitation to 2020 National Select Camp. Later in the summer, she competed at the Georgia LSC Long Course Senior State Championships and placed 3rd in the 50 free (26.55), 4th in the 50 back (29.88), 3rd in the 50 fly (28.83), and 8th in the 200 back. In August, she lowered her PB in the 100m fly to 1:00.57 with a 9th-place finish at Speedo Summer Championships-East.

In SCY, she won the 50 back and finished in the top-5 of the 50 free, 100 back, and 50/100 fly at the ISCA International Senior Cup last March. The SCY prelims/LCM finals produced PBs in the 50 back and 50 fly in both short course and long course.

Best SCY times:

  • 50 free – 22.85
  • 100 free – 49.89
  • 50 back – 25.82
  • 100 back – 53.91
  • 50 fly – 25.16
  • 100 fly – 53.72

Van Brunt is one of the class of 2023’s best short-game performers, for which we named her to the Honorable Mention section of our Way Too Early list of girls recruits. She is already within two-tenths of scoring at the SEC level in the 50 free and would have been a C-finalist in the 100 back and 100 fly at the 2021 conference meet.

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SCCOACH
3 years ago

Is a negative blurb about Margo Geer in every Alabama article really necessary?

Anonymous
Reply to  SCCOACH
3 years ago

Exactly – I think any kind of coaching change, especially in the SEC, will incur some people coming and others going. It is what it is…moving on…

Coach
Reply to  SCCOACH
3 years ago

Amen

Chas E
Reply to  SCCOACH
3 years ago

When Margo has no experience coaching at any level, and the article mentions Bama “off to a rocky start” in terms of recruiting, I’d hardly construe that as negative against Margo. More like factual.

Swimm
Reply to  Chas E
3 years ago

Uh her first recruiting cycle just started and she’s landed multiple recruits. Margo also went out and snagged Kaique Alves over the summer for this fall to replace some sprint depth, and he is looking to be pretty good (44 low/1:38 at first dual meet). I think she’s off to a fine start

SCCOACH
Reply to  Chas E
3 years ago

It’s factual. But swimswam is beating a dead horse by continuing to write about it. It’s almost like they are copy/pasting the same paragraph into every article when Alabama is mentioned. Let it go.

swimapologist
Reply to  SCCOACH
3 years ago

It’s almost like you don’t understand that this is the most significant story of the collegiate swimming & diving season.

You don’t think the story all next season for Duke basketball will be their new head coach?

This sounds personal to you. Or maybe you’re just not used to following sports? I dunno.

swimapologist
Reply to  swimapologist
3 years ago

Of the season for Alabama* sorry it won’t let me edit my comment.

About Anne Lepesant

Anne Lepesant

Anne Lepesant is the mother of four daughters, all of whom swam in college. With an undergraduate degree from Princeton (where she was an all-Ivy tennis player) and an MBA from INSEAD, she worked for many years in the financial industry, both in France and the U.S. Anne is currently …

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