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William Walz will be attending Pomona College in the fall of 2024 and swimming for the Pomona–Pitzer Sagehens, the joint varsity intercollegiate athletic program for Pomona College and Pitzer College. Walz is currently a senior at Mills High School in Millbrae, Calif., which is located about 400 miles up the coast from Pomona’s campus in Claremont, Calif.
The Burlingame Aquatic Club member told SwimSwam:
I am honored and thrilled to announce my verbal commitment to the admissions process at Pomona College to continue my academic and athletic career. Thank you so much to my family, friends, coaches, and teammates for their unwavering support throughout this journey. I am so grateful to be able to share this exciting milestone and look forward to the opportunities and challenges in the upcoming years! Go Sagehens!
Walz concluded his 2022-2023 short course season this past March at the Speedo Sectionals in Carlsbad where he achieved his first Futures Cut in the 400 IM.
Coming into the meet seeded 64th with his lifetime best of 4:10.20, Walz dropped more than three-and-a-half seconds to place 39th with a new PR of 4:06.61.
Then, in May, Walz was one of nine members of his high school team who competed at the 2023 Central Coast Section (CCS) Championships. Walz was the sole point scorer for Mills High School, leading the team to a 23rd-place finish in a field of 40 schools.
He placed 6th in the 500 free (4:38.10) and 10th in the 200 IM (1:53.95) with new personal best times in both events, dropping more than a second-and-a-half in the 500 free and nearly two seconds in the 200 IM to secure another Futures-qualifying time.
Top SCY Times
- 50 free – 22.18
- 100 free – 48.80
- 200 free – 1:44.17
- 500 free – 4:38.10
- 1650 free – 16:31.52
- 100 back – 53.22
- 200 back – 1:53.53
- 200 IM – 1:53.95
- 400 IM – 4:06.61
The Division III Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens finished 37 points behind conference champion Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS) at the 2023 Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) Championships and more than 400 points ahead of 3rd-place finisher Caltech.
Walz is poised to add depth to the roster with best times that would have scored in six events at the 2023 SCIAC Championships.
His best time in the 200 back would have placed 7th, while his PBs in the 400 IM and 1650 free would have placed 8th.
Additionally, Walz’s personal bests in the 200 IM, 500 free, and 200 back would have qualified for the ‘B’ final, and his 200 free is a mere three-hundredths away from what it took to qualify for a second swim at the conference championships.
Several of Pomona-Pitzer’s 2023 All-Conference swimmers are slated to still be on the roster when the 2024 recruiting class arrives on campus, including Joe Dienstag, the 200-back runner-up (1:50.23) who also took 7th in 100 back (51.81); Adrian Clement, who took 3rd in 50 free (20.84), 4th in 100 free (45.84), and 5th in 200 free (1:40.28); Gordon Kenny, who placed 3rd in 200 fly (1:51.00), 4th in 100 fly (49.64), and 7th in 200 IM (1:53.47); Matteen Harandi, who took 4th in 50 free (20.86) and 6th in 100 fly (49.87); and Allen Chang, the 5th-place finisher in 400 IM (4:04.99).
Joining Walz in the 2024 recruiting class are three swimmers with best times that also would have scored in the top eight at last year’s conference championships: Theo Holtzman in the 1650 free (16:18.94), Henry Cannon in the 200 free (1:42.20), and Parker Ewers in the 100 back (51.22) and 200 back (1:52.47).
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