Florida State has earned their first big commitment of the 2012 recruiting season after Sarasota YMCA product Derek Pridemore verbally committed to swim for the Seminoles next fall.
Pridemore is ranked as the #3 recruit in the state of Florida, and 24th amongst American prospects, according to collegeswimming.com. That makes this a big win for Florida State coach Neal Harper, as 8 out of the top 10 in-staters in this year’s freshman class headed to Gainesville.
His specialty is the distance freestyles, as he brings in lifetime-bests of 4:27.44 in the 500 and 15:23.24 in the mile. Those marks make him amongst the top-10 distance swimmers in the country in the class of 2012. and placed him 4th and 3rd, respectively, at YMCA Short Course Natinoals in 2011. He also took 3rd in the 1500 at this summer’s USA Swimming junior National Championships in a long course meters time of 15:38.14.
He’s surely benefited from training with Sarasota YMCA teammate Nicholas Caldwell, who is a freshman at Florida this year and is the best distance swimmer in his class.
By the time he gets to Tallahassee, his marks should be a good bit faster than those too given the huge time drops he put out during his junior year of high school (5-seconds cut off of his 500 free and 18 off of his 1650).
Small improvements in his 200 free (1:41.42) could also put him on the Seminole 800 free relay. ThaIt seems as though his times should be a bit faster in those shorter events than they are, given that he generally takes out his distance races pretty fast.
He will join a solid Florida State distance group that includes Colombian National Record holder Mateo DeAngulo, who could be an NCAA scorer in both the 500 and 1650 this year.
Florida State have recruited extremely well out of the Sarasota program, with at least three swimmers on the current roster being Sharks alums. As one of the premier YMCA clubs in the country, continuing to build this relationship with those coaches will be vital to the Seminoles’ future.
