Earlier this week, Tristan Sanders from Tampa Bay gave his verbal commitment to swim at the University of Michigan, according to Bob Putnam of the Tampa Bay Times.
Sanders, who is on the younger end of his age group, will begin to replenish a Michigan sprint group that was hit by pretty sizable graduations after their 2013 NCAA Championship.
He comes into his senior season with yards bests of 21.13/45.19/1:39.35 in the 50, 100, and 200 yard freestyles, and adds to that some versatility with a 49.6 and a 1:45.4 in the 100 and 200 yard backstrokes.
That’s the kind of versatility that Mike Bottom and the Michigan staff really value from their swimmers: especially in a backstroke group that has been a constant area of concern for Michigan.
Sanders, who swims for the Palm Harbor YMCA and Palm Harbor University High School, is the 3rd male swimmer to publically verbally commit to the Wolverines already in the class of 2014. FINA World Junior Championships team member Paul Powers became one of the first swimmers in the class to commit when he gave his verbal in mid-July, and Canadian National Age Group Record holder Evan White also gave a pledge to the maize & blue.
As the defending NCAA Champions, Michigan has been rumored to be on the recruiting board for most of the nation’s top swimmers. After two years of big graduations in 2013 and 2014, they should have plenty of scholarship money to play with as well. Expect this to be just the tip of the iceberg for this recruiting class.
Mike Bottom doing work!
This is actually the third commit (not second). They also picked up Canadian Evan White earlier this week (SwimSwam even reported it).