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Sebastian, Florida native Mitchell Ledford has announced his verbal commitment to North Carolina State University where he will swim and study in the class of 2027.
“I am so excited to announce my verbal commitment to further my swimming and academic career at NC State University! I want to thank God for giving me these opportunities and all the support from my family, coaches and friends. GO PACK! ♦♦”
Ledford, a USA Swimming Scholastic All-American and a junior at Sebastian River High School, ranks #6 on our Way Too Early List of top boys recruits from the high school class of 2023. He placed third in the 100 fly (48.73) and 12th in the 200 free (1:43.62) as a sophomore last season at the Florida High School Class 3A State Championships. A month later, he won the 100 fly (47.22) and 200 fly (1:47.09) and was runner-up in the 200 IM (1:51.43) at the 2020 18&U Winter Championships in Stuart.
Ledford trains year-round with Treasure Coast Swimming. He had an outstanding long course season, kicking things off with PBs in the 50 free (23.84), 200 free (1:52.16), and 200 IM (2:08.62) at the Summer Solstice Open. He then put up a B final-winning 100 fly time (53.58) at Olympic Trials Wave I that put him in the top-10 all-time in the U.S. for 15-16 boys. He also notched a PB of 51.99 in the 100 free in time trials. Ledford wrapped up the summer with a 53.08 in the 100 fly at Speedo Summer Championships-East, where he was runner-up, and now he owns the 6th-fastest time in history for 15-16 boys. He also finaled in the 200 fly (8th), 100 free (32nd), and 200 free (27th). He left the meet with PBs in the 100/200 fly (53.08/2:00.90).
Best SCY times:
- 100 fly – 46.96
- 200 fly – 1:46.32
- 100 free – 45.37
- 200 free – 1:40.54
- 200 IM – 1:50.06
Ledford is the top 200 flyer in the class of 2023 and his 100 fly is very close to the top of the pack. His performances in LCM this summer make one think he has some breakout SCY times coming, especially in the 50/100/200 free. He will join the NC State class of 2027 with #10 Will Heck, the class’s best breaststroker (53.73/1:57.16).
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NC native, UNC alum and swim parent here. It is disturbing to hear so much judgement about a kids college decision. I know kids that had the option of MIT, Stanford, Columbia.. academic only. They decided to stay in state. A lot goes into a kid’s college decision and at the end of the day it should be about where they think they will be happiest. This fall at UNC there have been a shocking number of suicide attempts. We all need more joy in our lives so let’s just be happy for the kid that has worked his butt off to have so many great choices. Congrats!!
It’s not our business why he chose one school over another. We should just wish him luck and hope he’s successful. Reading all of the pontificating about why Stanford is better is making my eyes bleed.
Congratulations Mitchell! Welcome to the Pack Family!
Out of interest, seeing this kid’s a Scholastic All American, what’s the pitch for NC State going into recruit on the academic side? Swimming must be one of the sports with the most top 25 NCAAs finishers also having a top 25 US News ranking (Stanford, Cal, UVA, Michigan). NC State’s a great school academically but it’s not at that level, I’d be interested how they pitch the academic side given the competition.
You are right, NC state is not the in the same stratosphere as those other schools in terms of all around liberal arts academia. But they do have some of the top engineering, architecture, & veterinarian colleges in the country.
Which can be a draw if you want to go into any of those fields & be joining a swim team ranked in the top 5 of the NCAA and has some of the best up and coming coaches.
I agree with the other replies. I have two children that are Scholastic All-Americans and Olympic Trials swimmers. They could have chosen any school in the country and they both chose NC State. College is what you make of it. NC State has great, hard-working, down-to-earth people. It also offers excellent academics and excellent swimming. The weather is pretty awesome too (not too hot & not too cold). Congratulation to Mitchell and the Wolfpack!
NC State is a land-grant university without law, music, pharmacy, medical, public health, dental schools (those are all at UNC decided by UNC System). It heavily focuses on agriculture and engineering.
If you want to use USNews ranking (even though most people know how questionable their methodology is), here are some latest NC State’s NATIONAL rankings (private+public univs) for their selected programs:
Undergraduate (graduate in parentheses):… Read more »
Nuclear eng (#3)
Biological eng #6 (#7)
Software eng #9
Industrial eng #14 (#16)
Analytics #14
Materials eng #19
Chemical eng #20 (#21)
Civil/Env eng #20 (#22)
Aerospace eng (#25)
Computer eng #26 (#22)
Mechanical eng #28 (#37)
Electrical eng #29
Lol you forgot Cal with your Stanford/Michigan/Texas reference. cal has more #1 ranked programs than all three of those schools combined.
Just want to point out that all of those degrees are all going to be extremely valuable in the near and distant future.
Nonsense. School is what you make of it except in few rare situations. Tons of extremely successful people don’t go to college much less these “elite” schools. Arguably the alumni network makes a difference but depending on what you want to study you can be successful wherever you go.
“Ranking” really doesn’t matter for the quality of the education you get. How much effort you put into your education matters infinitely more.
I feel like I’m gonna get flamed for this, but this is such a worthless take. We’re discussing one kids decision between schools of obvious different academic caliber. If he puts in the same effort at NC State vs Stanford he would get more out of his education at Stanford. They have more resources, better teachers, and a more academic atmosphere.
As you should!
He really would not.
While we are at it, please define “better teachers” and “more academic atmosphere”. These are BS takes. At both schools, your teachers will have PhDs. “Better” is just purely subjective after objective credentials are the same. “Academic atmosphere” is what you make it. If you want to be a party boy at Stanford, then you will have a party boy atmosphere. If you have an academic focus, then your atmosphere will be academic. The advantage and lure of Stanford are the connections.
Professors at Stanford have their degrees and experience from more prestigious programs. Stanford has better funding and therefore attracts more talented professors who want to do more research and are on the cutting edge of their field. That’s not to say Stanford is better than NC State in every way, particularly from student to student. You’re really trying to make it sound like rankings are just out of the blue and we all know that’s not true.
Stanford is awesome and one of the very few schools having the undergrad degree from actually could make a ‘difference’ in opening doors because, otherwise, after the first job, most people don’t care. Maybe it violates the guidance of ‘pick the school you’d be happy at if you weren’t swimming’ but especially for top 20 recruits who are 16-17 years old, is it bad to pick a top 100-200 academic school where you think you have the best chance to grow as a swimmer and have fun and win meets and maybe make US National/Olympic teams. If you can’t dream big then and go for it at 16, when can you? Athletes at that level get a lot of doors… Read more »
Undeniably true. Having kids at multiple schools in question the caliber of professor at NCState is lacking in many key disciplines (go look at Reddit for reviews on professors in key engineer departments such as Physics, Calculus, Chemistry). Over 50% of the kids in the Engineering program take those key classes at nearby Wake tech or online at another UNC. Is NCstate a good school? Absolutely! Is NCstate the caliber of Michigan, Stanford or Cal? Nope.
Also take a look how their older roster shrinks year over year. They will cut you at State if they find someone better which makes me sad for the kids on the team. I don’t see that happening at some of the other… Read more »
Nothing wrong with N.C. State academically at all, and being a scholastic all American doesn’t necessarily mean but so much. USA swimming gives that to anyone who has a 3.5 gpa and a winter juniors cut. More than 1000 kids last year.
Congratulations to Mitchell and to NCSU.
So many early commitments
PBG! Congratulations Mitchell.
Pack going crazy‼️
oh yeah, 🐺