In Briefs: No. 6 Recruit Lindsey McKnight Commits to Florida

Florida high school senior Lindsey McKnight, rated the number 6 women’s recruit in the class of 2012 by collegeswimming.com, has made her committment to the Florida Gators, which she alluded to via her Twitter account (thanks to a tipoff from one of our readers, Josh).

As we highlighted in our preview of last year’s number 7 team in the country, Florida will be looking for some sprinters to come in and fill holes next fall, and that will be McKnight’s primary role on the team. Her 2011 season(s) weren’t spectacular, but if you trace her best yards times back to 2009, they are scary good. She has bests of 22.7/49. 1 in the 50/100 freestyles, swum when she was only 15.

But the sprint freestyles aren’t the only thing she’s good at. She has a best of  1:46.1 in the 200 free, 54.8 in the 100 fly and 1:58.0 in the 200 IM (both also done as a sophomore), to go along with a 1:01.5 in the 100 breaststroke. Here’s an interesting comparison about her breaststrokes: Her best LCM time of 1:09.93 is actually faster than last year’s freshman phenom Breeja Larson, and in a twist of poetic fate was actually done at a Texas Senior Circuit meet at the A&M natatorium.

She trains at the South Florida Aquatic Club (SOFLO), which is quickly becoming recognized as one of the premier teams in the country after it was the spawn of the 2010 merger between Coral Springs and the Pembroke Pines Comets. They count amongst their athletes former NCAA Champion Alia Atkinson and the famous Dara Torres.

Simply put, if McKnight gets back to her 2009 form at the University of Florida, she’s going to be a college superstar. Even if she doesn’t, she’s still going to be pretty darn good. That makes this a great signing for Gregg Troy and the Gators.

McKnight becomes the 5th top-20 swimmer to publicly commit this year, after Liz Pelton and Rachel Bootsma both chose Cal, Kendyl Stewart chose USC, and Courtney Bartholomew chose Virginia.