British World Juniors Open Water Qualifier Archie Mitchell Commits to Cal Poly

Archie Mitchell of the Sheffield Swim Club in the UK signs his Letter of Intent to swim for Cal Poly.

Archie Mitchell of the Sheffield Swim Club in the UK signs his Letter of Intent to swim for Cal Poly.

City of Sheffield distance swimmer Archie Mitchell has verbally committed to Cal Poly.

Archie represented Great Britain at both the European Junior open water event in Croatia and the World Juniors in Hungary in September. He was also part of the British talent team competing at Portuguese pool nationals this summer.

Cal Poly is building a reputation in distance swimming and he’ll be joining sophomore Sonny Fierro, who became the first Mustang to score at an NCAA Championships meet when he finished 15th in the 1650 freestyle at this year’s Men’s Swimming Championships in Texas.

Fierro’s time of 14 minutes, 56.01 seconds also set a new school record and gives Archie something to aim for when he starts in September. For Coach Tom Milich it adds depth to a distance program which has seen Fierro make significant drops in his time.

Archie won British age group nationals in the 1500m in 2013 and earlier this year he clinched silver in the junior final of the 1500m at the Commonwealth Games trials in Glasgow. He was one hundredth of a second ahead of the third place finisher, Tom Howley in a nail biting finish. Howley had been ahead by two seconds at the 500 and eight tenths at the 1000

His time in that race was 15.48.83, which converts to 15.25.11 in 1650 yards, but has been dropping 15/20 seconds a year, which would certainly give him a shout at next year’s NCAA’s. In addition, his 200m long course back time of 2.05.81, achieved in those same championships, would position him well in the Cal Poly’s mix.

Archie trains with the City of Sheffield Swim Squad at Sheffield’s Ponds Forge pool.

“I want to thank my coach Mike Taylor, who has been amazing in preparing me for my open water events last year,” Mitchell said. “When the national council withdrew funding support in April, it was a blow to the club, but it’s been amazing to see how the team has rallied round to support the club, and I think that’s a testament to the coaches.”

He fell in love with the facilities at Cal Poly, including the newly converted eight lane 50m pool at the Anderson Aquatic Centre and was impressed with Coach Milich’s past achievements, including the High School coaching of Olympians like Janet Evans and the 400 free medalists John Mykkanen.

“I loved everything about Cal Poly. I can’t wait to start, to be able to train with such talented swimmers and coaches in such a beautiful, inspiring place. It is an opportunity that I’ve always dreamed of”.

He recently won the English School’s 200m Backstroke final and is a past winner of the UK School Games 1500m. He missed British Nationals this year but hopes to compete in the American ones next August:

“When I first talked to my coach about going to America it all seemed a far off possibility.

“I can’t believe how fast it’s all happened and going out there and spending time on recruitment trips gave me such a great insight into the level of Division One championships. Signing the national Letter of Intent felt really significant and although I’m now desperate to get going I will be really sad to leave my team mates in Sheffield behind.

“I’m hoping some of them will visit and I’ll hopefully be coming back for some UK meets. This is a chance of a lifetime for me and as well as getting a great degree I’m going to be part of the amazing Mustang swim team.”

Above is a press release that was submitted to SwimSwam.

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Pudgemeister
9 years ago

Congrats, Archie! Looks like another, long-overdue British invasion. One by land, two by sea! Or should I say, 15.48.83! Congrats Bud.

James
9 years ago

I did not realize that the men’s team is also now out of the Pac12. They still do a lot of dual meets and other involvement with Pac12 schools. The MPSF is probably more athletically appropriate for their level, and still has some solid depth with BYU and Hawaii yet keeping long time rivals like Pacific and UCSB.

Tom
9 years ago

Did Tom actually coach Janet Evans or was he simply the highschool coach where she went to highschool…

Dan
Reply to  Tom
9 years ago

I’m pretty sure he actually coached them.

James
9 years ago

With Cal, Stanford and USC hording so much CA talent, Cal Poly has a great chance to sell itself. You get an opportunity to compete in the Pac12, at a top notch academic institution that has invested heavily in new facilities. Great signing, bring some more on!

Neil
Reply to  James
9 years ago

Cal Poly is no longer in the PAC 12