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India’s Utkarsh Patil, a butterfly and backstroke specialist, has announced his verbal commitment to Indiana University-Bloomington for the fall of 2023.
Patil attends Delhi Public School Bangalore South in Bangalore, the third most populous city in India. He trains with the Basavangudi Aquatic Centre team.
Last summer, at the 2022 Junior National Aquatic Championships in Bhubaneshwar, he swam three lifetime best times, in the 100 back, 200 fly, and 50 back. He also won gold in the 100 back, 200 fly, and 200 back, and silver in the 50 back.
While Patil has not swum in short course yards before, his converted long course times can give a stronger idea of where he will land on the team once he gets to Bloomington.
Top Times (LCM / SCY Conversion)
- 100 fly – 57.30 / 50.36
- 200 fly – 2:04.60 / 1:49.72
- 50 back – 27.22 / 23.98
- 100 back – 57.78 / 50.97
- 200 back – 2:04.61 / 1:50.09
The Hoosiers compete in the Big Ten Conference in Division I of the NCAA. Patil comes closest to having Big Ten finalist potential in the 100 fly, where his lifetime best time would have placed 24th at last season’s championships, and the 200 fly, where he would have earned 23rd place.
Indiana men are coming off a first-place finish at the 2023 Big Ten Conference Championships, their fifth title in the last seven years, under head coach Ray Looze. Looze has experience coaching elite butterfliers and backstrokers on the team, notably senior Brendan Burns who won the 200 fly, 100 back, and 200 back at last season’s championships and went on to become the 2023 NCAA 100 back champion.
There’s no telling what Patil can do in short course yards under Looze and within strong training groups. Burns has decided to use his fifth year of eligibility at Indiana next season and Patil will also have junior Tomer Frankel, who placed second in the 100 fly and third in the 200 fly at the 2023 Big Tens, also leading the butterfly training group.
Patil is one of two international recruits in Indiana’s large incoming class of 2027 verbal commitments alongside Jia Ming Hsu, a freestyle, backstroke, and IM specialist from Taipei, Taiwan. They also join Toby Barnett, Dylan Smiley, Max Cahill, Honza Zika, Elliot Weisel, Lucas Byrd, William Raches, Leo Pelaez, Vidar Carlbaum, and Max Lestina in Indiana’s class of 2027.
If you have a commitment to report, please send an email with a photo (landscape, or horizontal, looks best) and a quote to [email protected].
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Congratulations Utti! Godspeed!
Adding “na”
Indiana diving and swimming is doing really well with international recruiting
Coach turnover has not been significant in last couple years or athlete loss. The athletes that have left over the years have been to follow the coach they click with. Or, they came from a program that did not have high level training and can’t handle the rigor and training expectations.
Your accusations of the head coach seem more personal as the % or coach loss or athlete loss is nil to none. And, what about the idea that sometimes athletes and coaches don’t click.
I feel bad you have such negative energy you say such hateful things. Life is to short.
IU is a great program and Ray is an amazing proven coach.
I did not score a point in a dual meet until my junior year, and Ray spent a ton of time working with me to fix my breaststroke. Ray is goofy and has high expectations, and my experience with him does not at all align with your claims. If someone called the Ray of 2010-2014 “hot tempered,” I wouldn’t trust a single other thing they said. People change, so maybe he was different when you worked with him, but I doubt it and doubt everything else you claim.
Why does SwimSwam allow comments like these with serious unsubstantiated accusations?
The original comment should never have been approved by swim swam.
Almost as well as Cal is doing with international recruiting