Jay Tao Yang, a butterflier/breaststroker out of Sandpipers of Nevada and a senior at Spring Valley High School, has made a verbal commitment to join West Point’s class of 2019.
Yang won the 100 fly (50.86) and was runner-up in the 100 breast (59.11) at the 2014 Nevada High School Division 1 State Championships. He has a wide range of events that he has been successful in, but his strongest might be the 200 fly and 200 breast. Yang’s times include:
200y fly: 1:50.12 200m fly: 2:06.93
200y breast: 2:06.01 200m breast: 2:28.31
200y IM: 1:54.06 200m IM: 2:12.25
400y IM: 4:04.93 400m IM: 4:43.42
The Patriot League is tough because they only swim an A-final and a B-final at conference championships. Nonetheless, Yang’s 200 fly is already solidly in the middle of the pack for B-final qualifiers, and not far off the A cutoff. Sandpipers of Nevada is known to have produced some excellent 200-fliers in recent years; Yang has another year to keep building on his success.
The Black Knights finished second in the Patriot League last year, about 30 points ahead of newcomer Boston University. Army had some great swims and, while they may not be ready to take over Navy’s spot at the top, they have been bringing in excellent recruits, as evidenced by the spate of school records broken over the last two seasons.
Yang should be a nice addition to Army’s roster in 2015.
