Canadian Olympic Trials Qualifier Payton Kelly Commits to Ball State for 2022

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Payton Kelly of Alberta, Canada has announced her decision to swim for Ball State University beginning in the 2022-2023 season. She is a junior at Henry Wise Wood High School. She is a Canadian Olympic Trials qualifier in the 100 back and she is a member of two provincial record-setting relays.

I chose the University of Ball State because I love the coaching staff and the environment he wanted to create for the team! I can’t wait to be apart of this program!

Kelly swims club at the Cascade Swim Club. Last summer she competed at the Canadian Summer Championships. She swam the 50, 100, and 200 meter free, the 100 and 200 meter back, and the 400 medley relay. She finished 24th in the 100 free and 18th in the 200 IM and 200 free. She made it back for finals swims in the 50 free and the 100 back, touching 13th and 6th respectively. Her finals 50 free time of 27.58 placed her 14th, while her 100 back time kept her in 6th place.

Kelly swam on five of Cascade Swim Club’s relays. She was on the 13-17 women 400 free and medley relays, as well as their 13-18 mixed relays. She swam on their 13-17 women 800 free relay in prelims. Her fastest 100 free split came from her prelims swim of the mixed 400 free relay. She anchored the relay in a 100 free time of 58.01. Parker Brown led off the relay, followed by Ella Varga, Youssef Maksoud, and Kelly. Additionally, she swam her fastest backstroke time on the women’s 13-17 400 medley relay in finals, where their relay won gold. Kelly’s backstroke leg was a personal best of 1:04.12. Isabelle Roth swam breast, Varga swam fly, and Gray Almasi anchored on free.

Top LCM Times (SCY Converted):

• 50 back – 29.61 (26.13)
• 100 back – 1:04:08 (56.64)
• 100 free – 58.54 (51.29)
• 200 free – 2:08.26 (1:52.66)
• 400 free – 4:28.97 (5:01.36)

Kelly will join the Cardinals in the fall of 2022. Her converted times would have made her the team’s 4th-fastest 100 backstroker during the 2019-2020 season. She would have been their second-fastest 100 freestyler behind Aspara Sakbun and their second-fastest 200 freestyler behind Sophie Bader and their second-fastest in the 500 behind Katie Walker.

She is the first public verbal commitment for Ball State’s class of 2026.

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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