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Lake Lytal Lightning sprinter Reese Branzell has announced his verbal commitment to the University of Georgia for fall 2021. He’s a rising senior at Score Academy in Boca Raton, Fla.
Georgia was the top school on my list and the perfect fit for me. UGA has a great top-ranked athletic program and it’s a strong academic school that offers my first choice major. It also has phenomenal coaches, a supportive academic advising staff and a solid team of swimmers. I’m super excited to spend my college career at the University of Georgia!! Go Dawgs!
TOP TIMES (SCY)
- 50 free – 21.10
- 100 free – 44.89
- 200 free – 1:39.45
At the 2019 Florida 2A Championships, Branzell picked up sprint titles in the 100 free (44.89) and 200 free (1:39.45) with lifetime bests in both events. In the 100 free, he defended his title from 2018 when he won in 45.53.
Branzell competed at the 2019 US Open in December, making it to finals in the 50m free (23.61) and 100m free (51.23), both solid efforts in long course.
This is a nice pickup for Georgia, who have only recently started to build their sprint group. Rising sophomore Dillon Downing was 19.3/43.0 last season to lead the Bulldogs in the 50/100 free, a strong sprinter, but the Bulldogs had nobody else under 20 seconds or 44 seconds in those events, which is not competitive in the SEC, let alone nationally.
UGA had a major recruiting push in their class of 2024, though, including bigtime names like Luca Urlando and Jake Magahey. Sprint free is neither of their main focuses, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t great sprinters; Urlando comes in at 19.8/43.2/1:34.3 and Magahey at 19.9/43.1/1:33.3.
Branzell joins TJ Pittenger, Henre Louw, Jackson Bates, Mitchell Norton, Ryan Wylie, Sam Parker, Brennan Cheney and Zach Kohm in UGA’s class of 2025.
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Georgia stacked
They’re bringing in a big class because they lose a ton of points after this upcoming year. Losing Murphy, Norgan, Reed, Dalmolin, Apel, and a handful of others is a huge blow. Maybe some of these guys will drop and fill in the gaps, but it will be a tough challenge
Other than Jackson Bates this whole class is freestylers… damn
There’s also that South African kid, I’m blanking on his name at the moment, but he’s not a freestyler either. He had a SwimSwam article last week maybe, just isn’t listed here.
Matthew Sates. He’s class of 2026 though
I’d say he definitely has some immediate room to improve in both the 50 and 200 with that 100 time. Awesome pick-up. Congratulations!