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“I am thrilled and honored to report my verbal commitment to study and swim at the University of Alabama in the Fall of 2020. When I stepped onto campus, met the team and coaching staff, and absorbed the Crimson Culture, I knew this was the place I wanted to call home. I couldn’t have gotten to this point without the support of family, friends, teammates, and coaches from past and present. Having the opportunity to work with new Head Coach Coley Stickles and the rest of the awesome Alabama coaching team is really a dream come true. I am also extremely grateful for everyone who has helped me along the way and am stoked for what the future holds! ROLL TIDE!”
Primarily a backstroker, Stelma has qualified for finals of the 100 back at the Texas 5A (smaller schools) State Championship meet in each of his 3 high school seasons so far.
While his presence in the state finals has been consistent in his high school career, his breakout junior season brought 2 big changes: the first is that he swapped the 100 free for the 200 free, which resulted him him dropping a whopping 4.8 seconds in that event over the course of the 2018-2019 season.
The other is that as a junior he figured out how to hit his finals swims. As a freshman and a sophomore, all 3 of his individual finals swims were slower than his prelims swims. As a junior, he hit the same time in the 100 back twice, to the hundredth, and dropped 2-tenths in the 200 free.
Texas 5A State Championship Progression:
| Freshman | Sophomore | Junior | |
| 100 back | 8th – 52.60 (51.91 in prelims) | 8th – 51.71 (50.52 in prelims) | 2nd – 49.59 (49.59 in prelims) |
| 100 free | 17th – 48.04 | 5th – 46.79 (46.45 in prelims) | – |
| 200 free | – | – |
3rd – 1:39.55 (1:39.77 in prelims)
|
- 50 free – 20.97
- 100 free – 46.12
- 200 free – 1:39.55
- 50 back – 23.28
- 100 back – 49.07
- 200 back – 1:45.89
Last season, Alabama trained the SEC Champion in the 50 free, 100 free, and 100 back: 3 of Stelmar’s best events (albeit under a different coaching staff). Of the Crimson Tides’ 4 sub-48 backstrokers last season, 2, led by rising sophomore Spencer Walker (47.27), will still be on the roster when Stelmar arrives. The team has less depth in the 200 back.
Stelmar was a 2018 USA Swimming Futures Champion in the 100 meter backstroke (57.86) , and also took 2nd in the 200 backstroke (Best time is now 2:06.88). At the 2018 USA Swimming Junior Nationals – West meet, he finished 9th in the 200 yard backstroke.
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Does this mean he has to move to Indiana?