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Rising high school senior Rachel Fulton from Lakeside High School in Evans, Georgia has verbally committed to the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. She is scheduled to arrive in the fall of 2021.
“Happy to announce my verbal commitment to study and swim at Georgia Tech next fall. I am very grateful to my family, coaches, and friends for their encouragement and support over the years. Go Jackets!”
Fulton was the 2020 Georgia Class 6A State Champion in the 50 free, swimming 23.78 in the 6A-7A final. That tied her as the 5th-fastest swim from across the 7 high school classifications in Georgia. That time improved her by a tenth from what she swam at the state meet in 2019 as a sophomore.
She was also the Class 6A runner-up in the 100 back, swimming 57.18.
For Fulton, who leans heavily to the sprint events, her best times have come from outside of the high school season. That includes a 23.42 in the 50 free, her best event, at the Speedo Southern Premier meet in March of 2019. With her junior club season cut short by the burgeoning coronavirus pandemic, Fulton didn’t get those post-State-Championship opportunities to undercut her best times in 2020.
Fulton trains with the Aiken-Augusta Swim League.
Best Times in Yards:
- 50 free – 23.42
- 100 free – 51.66
- 50 back – 25.57
- 100 back – 56.17
- 100 fly – 58.87
For the Georgia Tech women, who finished 9th out of 12 teams at the ACC Championships in 2020, sprinters are a big area of need. They didn’t score any points in the 50 or 100 freestyle events at the ACC Championships, which were 2 of just 3 events (100 fly) where the Yellow Jackets were shut out in February. The team’s 200 free relay was the last to touch the wall (though they officially beat a disqualified Virginia Tech team), and their 400 free relay finished 11th.
Fulton’s best time in the 50 would have put her on Georgia Tech’s 200 free relay at the ACC Championships, and her best time in the 100 free would have put her in the conversation for a spot on the 400 free relay as well (which had 3 seniors on it).
The Yellow Jackets are addressing that weakness in a big way as part of a very big class of 2021 that should dramatically improve the team’s stead in the coming seasons.
Besides Fulton, Georgia Tech is adding Maddie Murphy (23.4/51.0 freestyler), Caroline Pape (24.0/50.8/1:49.4 freestyler), and the Georgia 7A state champion in the 100 free and 200 IM Lily Burke (23.9/50.7/1:49.3 freestyler).
That’s in addition to other 2021 commits Sarah Livingston, Clarissa Sabin, and Defne Tacyildiz.
Among sprinters scheduled to start for Georgia Tech in the 2020-2021 season is Astrid Dirkzwager from Kansas (23.8/51.2/1:49.6). The Georgia Tech relays will still be looking for some help this season in those free relays after graduations, but by the spring of 2022 should see drastic improvement.
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