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Rokas Jazdauskas, a European champion and Lithuanian national record holder, is committed to swim at Auburn University beginning this fall.
Jazdauskas earned a gold medal in the 4×200 free relay at the European Aquatics Championships in June for his performance in the preliminary heats of the event; he helped Lithuania land in the top spot heading into finals, where the relay team went on to secure the victory.
Even more notably, Jazdauskas was on Lithuania’s Olympic-qualifying 4×200-meter free relay at the World Championships in February, anchoring the relay in a closing split of 1:48.74 to help Lithuania punch their ticket to Paris in the event.
Jazdauskas was also a part of the relay team that set Lithuania’s national record in the short course 4×100-meter free relay at the Nordic Championships back in 2022, throwing down a time of 49.25 on the opening leg to help his team to a time of 3:16.36 overall.
Jazdauskas is primarily a freestyler, excelling at the sprint and mid-distances. At the Lithuanian Open Championship in April, he placed 3rd in the 200 free (1:50.79) and 4th in the 100 (51.23). He also won the preliminary heats of the 400 free in a best time of 4:04.76, but opted not to swim it in finals.
Best Times (SCY Conversion):
- 50 free – 22.94 (19.94)
- 100 free – 49.93 (43.54)
- 200 free – 1:49.21 (1:35.50)
- 400 free – 4:04.76 (4:34.24)
Auburn is a Division I program that competes in the SEC conference, going up against fellow collegiate powerhouses like the University of Florida, University of Georgia and Texas A&M. Auburn’s men’s team was the runner-up at the 2024 SEC Championships back in February, before sending 11 swimmers on to compete at the NCAA Division I Championship.
To make it back for the finals at SECs, it took times of 19.67 in the 50 free, 42.92 in the 100, 1:35.40 in the 200 and 4:20.27 in the 500, putting Jazdauskas right on the cusp of qualifying in a handful of events.
Based on the times from this past season, Jazdauskas’ converted times should make him 5th on the team in the 50 free, 3rd in the 100, 5th in the 200, and 5th in the 500, although that does not account for the other incoming freshmen. He will be joined by a few other freestylers in the fall, who will make for good training partners over the next four years.
Jazdauskas heads to Alabama this fall, where he will be joined by Jack Ailshire, James Allison, Nolan Chennault, Aidan Clements, Andy Commins, Sam Empey, David Hatt, Bradford Johnson, Travis Keith, Isaac Lee, Landon Lloyd, Cade McComb, River Paulk, Keaton Rice, Warner Russ, Aiden Siers and Ethan Swart.
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that is a huge freshman class
We had a kid on our team 6-1 160 as Senior 20.5/45.5 he just barely was able to walk on at a non- top 20 D1. Now going into Senior year, 6-2 190 19.2/42.9. Who knows what he could of done if he was able to walk on at Cal or NC State etc.
Dave Marsh used to take 51 100 fly guys and get them to go 46/47 back in the 90s and early 00’s, kids who were late bloomers or raw undeveloped talent. Who is doing this in NCAA’s right now?
Most coaches are picking up sure things from other countries. This is not good for USA. Also, any school that takes tax money should not… Read more »
If you look at some of the foreign freshman recruited onto the team this year, they are raw undeveloped talent that have only been swimming for a short period of time, so I am sure this was taken into consideration and maybe they will eventually want to be on team USA, if given the chance? I’m sure they have earned their spot on the team and possibly against all odds too and I doubt that they would have taken the spot away from a USA swimmer at the same competitive level, because why would anyone do that?🤷🏽♂️
Anthony Nesty originally swam for Suriname at the Olympics and is now the USA Olympic Coach.
Good for Rokas but when are we going to put a cap on foreign swimmers on NCAA teams. Should be one per team. It is hurting the development opportunities for US swimmers. Many great 17 year old boys never have a chance to develop to their potential because there aren’t spots on great NCAA teams. Too many spots given to foreign athletes especially in top 20 NCAA teams.
There are no Team USA-caliber swimmers who aren’t getting spots on college teams.