Breaststroker and Accomplished Violinist Karl Helmuth Commits to Ohio State

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Breaststroker Karl Helmuth, a junior at Hoover High School in North Canton, Ohio, has verbally committed to Ohio State. He’s scheduled to join the Buckeyes’ incoming class in the fall of 2021.

I am incredibly excited to announce my verbal commitment to continue my academic and athletic careers at The Ohio State University! I would like to thank God, my coaches, my teammates, my friends, my family, and most importantly my parents for being by my side through this process and helping me to get to this point in life. Go Buckeyes!

Helmuth qualified 3rd into finals of the 100 breaststroke at the 2020 Ohio High School State Championship meet, but was banned from racing finals after he posted on social media disputing a disqualification of his team’s 200 medley relay.

A year earlier, as a sophomore, Helmuth finished 4th in the 100 breaststroke at the Ohio State meet.

An equally-accomplished long course swimmer, Helmuth is a Summer Juniors and Winter U.S. Open qualifier. At Juniors in 2019, he finished 19th overall in the 100 breaststroke (1:03.66) and 12th overall in the 200 breaststroke (2:18.42). His 100 breast time is just .37 seconds short of the Olympic Trials standard, while his 200 breast time is about half-a-second shy.

Best Times in Yards:

  • 50 free – 20.80
  • 100 free – 46.04
  • 200 free – 1:46.36
  • 100 breast – 55.77
  • 200 breast – 2:02.56
  • 200 IM – 1:52.03
  • 400 IM – 4:08.07

Helmuth will join an Ohio State team that placed 2nd at last year’s Big Ten Championship meet behind arch-rivals Michigan. A strong performance by their breaststroke group saw them score 75 points in the 100 and 67 in the 200 – second only to Michigan in those events. A pair of sophomores, Jason Matthews and Hudson Daniels, placed in the A final of the 100 breaststroke at that meet, and they’ll be seniors when Helmuth arrives.

Helmuth is the 2nd announced commitment for the Buckeyes in the class of 2021, joining fellow Ohio native Luxe Paxton, who is a 48-second 100 butterflier. This small class (so far) follows a big class of at least 12 that are scheduled to arrive in 2020 for the Buckeyes.

In addition to swimming, Helmuth is an accomplished musician. His mom, Amy Glick, played violin in the Akron Symphony Orchestra, and Karl recently served as the current concertmaster of the Canton Youth Symphony.

If you have a commitment to report, please send an email with a photo (landscape, or horizontal, looks best) and a quote to [email protected].

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collegeswimmer
3 years ago

My coach told my that officials are supposed to put swimmers first. Seems like these days some either just don’t care, or are looking to DQ kids.

I have met many nice officials though, and they do a great job.

SwimCoach
Reply to  collegeswimmer
3 years ago

Your coach lied to you.

The officials’ first priority is the SAFETY of the swimmers, coaches, spectators, and everyone else.
After that, their second priority is the INTEGRITY of the competition.

If your coach told you that they should overlook perceived infractions because of some “swimmers first” mentality, they lied to you.

Texas Dad
3 years ago

If the officials felt threaten then it unsportsmanlike conduct may have been justified Ohio is one of the stateS that disallows HS swimmers from competing in USA-S meet during the season. A little over reach in their culture

Samesame
Reply to  Texas Dad
3 years ago

Why do they disallow it? Just curious . A clash of dates?

Texas Dad
Reply to  Samesame
3 years ago

it’s not only state I guess they don’t want a group of kids to have a advantage I think it’s swimming to your best by doing both. Sounds like a rule a Democrat would make

Ddb
Reply to  Samesame
3 years ago

Cultural thing. High school sports are HUGE in Ohio, the state meet is the most important meet of the year for swimmers there (moreso than JNats or sectionals, etc)

Ayyyyeeee
Reply to  Samesame
3 years ago

You’ve got like 3 1/2 – 4 months a year to put your school colors and be a part of a team like many other high school sports and most will be in college. It’s a special experience that if you haven’t experienced it may be hard to understand. I’m not saying it’s Friday Night Lights, but being a part of a team in a sport that’s often deemed as an “individual sport” is unique. You’ve still got 9 other months a year to do your club thing and care about yourself.

Ayyyyeeee
Reply to  Texas Dad
3 years ago

Sorry dad, you’re a little off on that one

Ayyyyeeee
Reply to  Texas Dad
3 years ago

If your kid swims for U T men, than you have seen and should have understood this special, team aspect better than most. Eddie brings out his guys caring about each other and putting others first, “forget about yourself”. This is what it’s like to swim high school in Ohio. Stop by states in February and see “the greatest swim meet in the country”.

Geno
3 years ago

Congrats to Karl! It’s unfortunate the discrepancy piece was even included in a commitment post as it was. As a writer or columnist, I would ask myself, ‘is this necessary?’ Makes one wonder if this was purely to stir the pot. Regardless of the situation, the kid has great upside and this is a huge moment for him, his family, his coaches and all those that support the aspirations of this young man. Let’s avoid trying to bring others down when it’s not necessary. Seems silly and small.

SwimCoach
Reply to  Geno
3 years ago

I dunno, I wanted to know how he did at the Ohio high school state championship meet, and it answers my question.

Why is it that swimmers think they get to skate on by stuff like this? Seems like Ohio State has a recent history of male swimmers who make poor decisions. Everyone in Columbus seems to have the idea that we should all just ignore them, continue beating the drum for how amazing swimmers are.

I think the truth is important. Sounds like you disagree.

The Godfather
Reply to  SwimCoach
3 years ago

I’m sure you’ve made plenty of mistakes that you’re no proud of, but the difference is yours isn’t posted in a commitment article. It’s really easy to preach about something when you’re not the one being criticized. And if you have a real problem with people being held accountable then a comment section on swim swam isn’t the place to complain about it.

Amos
3 years ago

Officiating at this meet has always been sketchy. There was a relay in finals at D1 meet that clearly a false start was committed. Official was way out of position and she could have cared less about making a call. The school never gets dqed so as usual no call was made. The only way to eliminate the incompetency is to get electronic takeoff equipment or move it to Ohio State who has the technology.

Justanotherfreestyler
Reply to  Amos
3 years ago

I’m assuming the school you’re referencing is St. X in which case I would agree as they seem to have some pact with the devil so they will never get dqed. It’s even worse at Classic.

Justanotherfreestyler
Reply to  Amos
3 years ago

The other kid mentioned in the article, Paxton, got dqed in the 100 fly for going past 15 meters and the coach disputed it so heavily they got out the measuring tape and made sure it was 15 meters. One of the swimmers on my team made the A final because of the DQ and we actually ended up winning the whole meet because of it.

Gamer
Reply to  Amos
3 years ago

I’m sorry you guys don’t have elite athletes capable of utilizing fast relay starts.

St. X Swimmer
Reply to  Amos
3 years ago

Yo Amos why do you hate us so much?

Nick Kerr
Reply to  Amos
3 years ago

Should’ve been more explosive!

daeleb cressel
3 years ago

ViolinViolan

Buddy
3 years ago

Hudson McDaniel and Jason Mathews were A final at B1Gs. Not B final

Doconc
3 years ago

There is more to this story. The dq was justified

PVSFree
Reply to  Doconc
3 years ago

Care to share?

Dressel_42.8
Reply to  Doconc
3 years ago

False, literally nothing more to the story.

Dressel_42.8
Reply to  Dressel_42.8
3 years ago

“tHeRe iS mOrE tO tHiS sToRy”

Ayyyyeeee
Reply to  Dressel_42.8
3 years ago

damn after the second of these comments doesn’t seem like you’re a teammate or little brother

The Importer AND Exporter
Reply to  Doconc
3 years ago

Post the post. Let the people decide.

Joe
3 years ago

Can they really take you out of finals for a social media post?? Wtf

schwammer
Reply to  Joe
3 years ago

More to the story, didn’t just “dispute the disqualification”, the officials at the meet deemed his post to be threatening to the officials in manner. I didn’t see it so i’m not sure how true it is but that was their side of the story.

Dressel_42.8
Reply to  schwammer
3 years ago

Not true.

Dressel_42.8
Reply to  Dressel_42.8
3 years ago

“mOrE tO tHe sToRy”

Lily_king_55.73
Reply to  schwammer
3 years ago

Take your comment down please if you “didn’t see it” and are “not sure it’s true” you are tainting this commitment post with your uniformed comment

Swimws
Reply to  Joe
3 years ago

OHSAA Bylaw 8, Section 2, which states: “Coaches and participants are expected to follow the same procedure and make no derogatory public comments directly to the media or through the use of social media regarding not only the officials, but also the players, coaches or schools.”

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Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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