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High school senior Nick Caruso, one of the top remaining uncommitted swimmers in the class of 2021, has announced his commitment to the Kentucky Wildcats.
Racing at last weekend’s Sarasota location of the Florida Virtual Championships, Caruso put up new lifetime bests in the 1650 free and 100 fly, as well as a new best time in the 1000 free as a split en route to that new top mile time. That swim also gives Caruso his first Futures Championships cut in a short course event, joining another cut he holds in the 400 free in long course (4:08.08).
While he missed his best times in the 200 and 500 freestyles, he dropped 25.55 seconds to go 15:55.27 in the mile, and drop 7-tenths of a second to go 53.29 in the 100 fly (in prelims). He split 9:37.76 over the first 1000 yards of his mile swim.
That mile time, specifically, shows his potential to be a three-event contributor at the SEC level. Previously, his best times in the 200 free (1:39.63) and 500 free (4:30.63) were tracking in that direction, but he lacked a strong third event to go with them – he’s been 47.83 in the 100 free on a relay leadoff.
Caruso finished 3rd in the 500 free at November’s Florida High School 4A (big schools) State Championship meet representing Buchholz High School.
Best Times in Yards:
- 100 free – 47.83
- 200 free – 1:39.63
- 500 free – 4:30.60
- 1000 free – 9:37.76 (split)
- 1650 free – 15:55.27
Caruso is part of a group of swimmers, especially in the Southeastern US, who has taken big advantage of competition opportunities post-coronavirus-quarantines to drop big time and really raise his recruiting stock. Entering 2020, his best time in the 500 free was a 4:39 from the 2019 state championship meet. He knocked more than 9 seconds off that swim.
In the 200 free, he dropped almost 5 seconds across the calendar year, and in the 1650 free, he’s dropped more than 25 seconds. While none of those times would have scored at last year’s SEC Championships (it took 1:35/4:22/15:31 to score), Caruso is rapidly trending in the right direction.
Caruso lives and trains in Gainesville, Florida, home of Kentucky’s SEC rivals the Florida Gators. While the Wildcats don’t recruit a ton out of the state of Florida, they do have 2 other current swimmers from Buchholz High School on their roster: junior Mason Wilby on the men’s team and sophomore Caitlin Brooks on the women’s team.
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