2017 World Championships gold medalist and 13-time NCAA All-American Zach Apple will transfer to Indiana University for his final year of collegiate eligibility after three at Auburn.
“They’ve been doing some really great things,” Apple said of Indiana. “Their team has been improving at a pretty fast rate and it seems like they’re doing stuff right in the pool over there.”
He said IU was also a great place to finish out his major – exercise science – and cited IU’s burgeoning pro group as a good opportunity for to continue his swimming after graduation. There are already two Auburn alums in the Indiana pro group. Apple said he was good friends with Ashley Neidigh when she was at Auburn, and although he didn’t overlap with Zane Grothe on the college team at Auburn, he did get to know him better last summer. Both now train out of Bloomington, Indiana.
Apple did say the resignation of head coach Brett Hawke played a big role in his decision to transfer.
“I was planning on staying at Auburn,” Apple said. “With Brett resigning… he was obviously my main coach, being in the sprint group. So that was a bit of a bummer.
“I think that this is going to be the best decision for me to move forward in my career. But I’m super thankful for coach Hawke and the three years we had together, and everyone here at Auburn has been amazing.”
Hawke resigned earlier this spring and was recently replaced by NC State assistant Gary Taylor. Taylor will now have to find a new sprinter to replace Apple’s major production.
Apple has been a key player for Auburn in his three seasons there. In 2018, he scored points in all three of his individual races, taking 5th nationally in the 50 free, 3rd in the 200 free and 9th in the 100 free. He is among the fastest NCAA returners in all three events. Apple was also a member of all three freestyle relays for the Tigers.
His lifetime-bests make him a massive pickup for Indiana, which finished a strong 3rd at NCAAs this spring, but graduates its backbone freestyler, Blake Pieroni. Apple should allow the Hoosiers to pick right up where they left off, particularly on their defending NCAA champion 400 medley relay, which now returns backstroker Gabriel Fantoni, breaststroker Ian Finnerty and flyer Vini Lanza and will replace Pieroni (40.6 split) with Apple (lifetime-best 41.3 from a flat start).
Apple swam on Team USA at the 2017 World Championships as a prelims-only member of the 400 free relay. He split 48.16 on that relays’ morning squad, which was second-fastest among the prelims group.
Apple will already be moving to IU next week, as Auburn’s finals will wrap up this week. He should be eligible to start competing for Indiana next season with one year of collegiate eligibility remaining.
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As a long time friend and teammate of Zapple, I speak for all of us when I say we wish him nothing but the best. Zapple is family, and we always want what is best for our brothers. We understand his reasoning and most of us would do the same thing if we were in his position. However… I feel this next part needs to be said as it has been weighing on me for a while. Unfortunately, his swimming skills simply don’t transfer over to the PS4 whatsoever because comparatively he is trash at Rainbow 6, Overwatch, and Fortnite. While we will continue to play with him here, if any of the Indiana boys are looking for a glorified… Read more »
Why would he not transfer to NC State? Feel like if he wanted to take his swimming to the next level he would train with the Wolfpack.
Probably because Indiana places higher than the Wolfpack at NCAA
I think in recent years that was only last year and only because they scored a lot of diving points. Swim points (Apple is a swimmer after all) was decidedly in NC States favor.
Down voters, I speak the truth. Total points Indiana 422-NC State 385 Diving Points Indiana 98- NC State 0
Swimming Points NC State 385- Indiana 422-98= 324.
Assuming he was interested, maybe Holloway wouldn’t have wanted to take a transfer off his former assistant? Just a thought.
Three former teammates at Indiana. Indiana has a really good setup for their pro group for him to slide into. And Coley Stickels.
Just off the top of my head.
Pretty sure NC State has the better sprint free programs. Who won those relays NCAAs? When’s the last time Indiana had an Olympic Gold medalist in the sprint free events?
And when was the last time NC State had an Sprint free olympic Champion?
Guess he watched Pieroni last year in Budapest and how he performed at NCAA + the overall program . We didnt see many wolfpack swimmers in the line-up on that Us 400 free relay or on that 800 free relay . This is not a criticism at all as i enjoyed watching those guys at NCAA this year ( great relays experience and depth ) and wish Held the very best for this summer .
He just wanted to be on Cody Millers Vlogs
comment of the day in my book – and i like Cody’s Vlogs – they are excellent and very informative .
Just wait the new NCAA recruit rules will escalate the JR/SR free agent trade affect that IU and ASU is starting to perfect beyond the numbers game.
Very interesting, normally after three years the school doesn’t accept all transfer credits. Seems like Indiana promised some things and is playing dirty. Don’t think they have any scholarship money left at this time of the year for next season.
We’re 2 years out of the Olympics. He wants to be somewhere he feels is a good fit for him. This comment is ridiculous.
Good fit? Leaving Auburn where he developed to a World champ? It seems for me Auburn was good for him. In addition I think personal opinion of swimswam writers should not aggressiv towards users.
The coach who developed him left, he was going to have to do something new if he stayed or left and he decided Indiana was better for him than new Auburn. Also Lauren was pretty non-aggressive and quite frankly I enjoy people enlightening uninformed comments
If you can’t take people disagreeing with your opinions, maybe making comments on articles isn’t for you.
Some people just have natural talent it sometimes has nothing to do with coach
I am all for a news site where the journalists call the commenters out when they’re being ridiculous. Dry your tears.
Lol. I was in no way aggressive towards you.
What Deepsouthatl said, especially when it appears your singular purpose for appearing on this board is to tell everyone and everything associated with a specific program that they’re wrong. Doesn’t seem like a very genuine effort to participate in the conversation.
Indiana is actually a much stronger program for Exercise Physiology (think Doc Counsilman), so it will benefit him from a degree standpoint. Plus their swimming ain’t too shabby either!
It’s been a long time since I was in college but how do you graduate on time if you transfer this late? Aren’t most universities only allowing you to transfer a small amount of credits in your major? Most people I knew transferred between soph and jr year since those are more ‘general’ classes and the only thing you lost was the actual grade score.
Maybe these things don’t matter anymore or maybe he was on a 5 year plan. Just something that’s been bugging me with all the transfer updates.
Big ‘get’ for Indiana!
It’s been easier to transfer credits since colleges started storing grades on computers 🙂
Well I’m not that old! I just mean that most degrees require you to take a majority of your classes at the university that gives you the diploma – they don’t let you transfer 3 years of classes from other schools. It’s the way they force you to pay them for the name on diploma!
I don’t know who it was, but someone on the Gary taylor article predicted this EXACT move….
Call me ninja
i will refer to you as daddy
Don’t make it weird man
You’re suppose to refer to the Midwestman as daddy
Should we call you new Sun Devil?
it was probably the apple man himself
Can someone enlighten me on transfer rules in swimming. It seems like some people are required to sit for a year, while others transfer and swim right away.
I think it may have something to do with conferences. If you transfer in conference you have to sit out a year, but if you don’t, you are free to swim immediately
Coaches can refuse to release you and then you are required to sit out a year, or many conferences require you to sit out a year if you transfer within the conference.
Thank you for the information Black Line and DMSWIM.