Arizona Men, Women Each Get Another Verbal As Classes Continue To Grow

The University of Arizona has picked up two verbal commitments this week: one for each side of their combined program. For the men, the signing is Keegan Shuping , and for the women it’s Jenna Bauer, both of whom are from Northern California.

Shuping is primarily a short-distance freestyler. In yards, he has been 20.99, 46.05, and 1:40.85 in the 50, 100, and 200 yard freestyles.

He’s also got a little bit of potential in the sprint backstrokes as well – he’s been 51.51 in yards, and at juniors this summer time-trialed a 59.4 in the 100 meter race.

Shuping swims at Spare Time Aquatics in Sacramento under head coach Kirk Johansen, and is the Sierra Nevada LSC 17-18 record holder in the 50 free in long course with a 23.80.

Bauer is a bit more versatile: she swims the middle-distance freestyles, the backstroke races, and is a strong IM’ers as well.

In the 200 and 500 yard freestyles, she’s been 1:48.95 and 4:47.39, respectively, and also has gone 56.0/1:58.2 in the 100 and 200 yard backstrokes, plus 2:02.3 and 4:21.9 in the 200 and 400 yard IM’s.

She’s the 5th woman to have verbally committed to Arizona this fall, which is roughly the size of their last two classes already (there are 5 freshmen this year, there were 6 the year before).

Arizona’s middle distance group is very strong, as evidenced by their runner-up performance at the 2013 NCAA Championships, where they broke the American Record with just one senior. In addition to that one senior last year, though, there were two juniors, meaning that the Wildcats in the next two seasons will be looking for some relay replacements.

Bauer actually is a very similar swimmer to Bonnie Brandon (incidentally, the one freshman on that 800 free relay last year). They’re both very good middle-distance freestylers, and outstanding backstrokers with special emphasis on the 200, where Brandon won the B Final at NCAA’s last year.

Bauer, of course, isn’t quite as tall as Brandon (few are), but in terms of specialty, they’re similar.

Bauer swims for Neptune Swimming and Montgomery High School in Santa Rosa, California.