After picking up one of Egypt’s top sprint freestylers Mohamed Samy as well as Tennessee sprint transfer Josh Romany in the last couple of weeks, Indiana Hoosiers head coach Ray Looze has landed another sprint transfer in Harold Duke.
Duke swam in NCAA’s Division III at Emory University, where Olympic Trials breaststroke finalist Andrew Wilson and NCAA D3 50 free champion Oliver Smith attend. During the 2014-15 season, as a freshman, Duke was Emory‘s 2nd-fastest 50 and 100 freestyler, as well as their #3 100 backstroker.
Duke’s Top Times
- 50 free, 20.69
- 100 free, 45.63
- 200 free, 1:40.20
- 50 back, 23.25
- 100 back, 49.30
Duke left Emory after his freshman year, and has spent the last season training at home in Tennessee. His best times all came from last October or sooner, and he’ll probably focus on his sprint free with Looze’s growing sprint program.
Indiana won the 200 free relay at the 2016 Big Ten Championships, and return U.S. Olympic 4×100 free relay member Blake Pieroni and Olympians Ali Khalafalla (Egypt) and Anze Tavcar (Slovenia). The Hoosiers also bring back Oliver Patrouch, who split a 19.22 to anchor the Hoosiers‘ relay at B1Gs this past season, and Sam Lorentz, who was 19.30 to anchor the Hoosiers‘ relay at NCAAs.
Pieroni and Tavcar went 1-2 in the 100 free at B1Gs, while Khalafalla tied for third. On top of that, IU won the 400 free relay conference title later in that session.
Though Duke doesn’t have the times to score at B1Gs quite yet, he’ll be a welcome addition to a sprint group in Bloomington that continues to grow.
Facts speak for themself…
The Minn. sprint coach has coached a freshman, not even remotely on the recruting radar, to a semifinalist in the 50 free at Olympic trials.
Oh, and a current US Olympian in an individual event (and relay too). Does the name Plummer ring a bell?
And all of this within a single year.
Minnesota is on the rise. Go Gophers!
LOL okay Kelly, let’s lay off the Irish coffee. Gopher men have become a joke since Dennis left. How many titles did Dennis win compared to Kelly (with men)? A lot more. Dennis is a great coach, but not the type of personality a major athletics department wants. He has a speech impediment and is socially awkward. Great coach, but weird guy. Kelly is a great women’s coach and very personable. Kelly as a men’s coach is suspect. End rant.
All Hail Denis Dale
IUSPRINT – You don’t really understand…you see, Dennis was let go from the Golden Gophers because they needed “to go in different direction”. Because the direction that he was taking their Sprint program wasn’t what they had in mind…seems like that was a smart move on Minnesota’s part. I wonder why none of these transfers are choosing the Mighty Gopher sprint program; could you possibly enlighten me on this?