Oklahoma’s Lydia Lafferty Commits to Kansas, then Drops a Second in Best Event

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Lydia Lafferty of the American Energy Swim Club in Oklahoma City has verbally committed to the University of Kansas. A high school junior, Lafferty is the first swimmer in the class of 2022 to publicly pledge her college career to the Jayhawks.

Lafferty, the best female recruit in the class out of the state of Oklahoma, doesn’t participate in the high school swim season, but if she did, her best time in the 100 fly of 54.85 would have own the Oklahoma State title last year by more than a second.

At the 2019 long course Sectionals meet in Columbia, Missouri, she was 4th in the 50 fly in 24.98 and 6th in the 100 fly.

Best Times in Yards:

• 50 free – 24.19
• 100 free – 53.09
• 100 back – 59.34
• 100 fly – 54.85
• 200 fly – 2:13.42
• 200 IM – 2:08.97

While Lafferty doesn’t offer much yet in the way of secondary events, her 100 fly time is dropping fast and will be important for the Jayhawks.

After committing in early October, she swam her best time in the 100 yard fly just 2 weeks ago with a 54.85. That knocked over a second off her previous lifetime best that was set almost 2 years ago at 55.90.

That new best time in the 100 fly, even as just a junior in high school, would have placed her in the A final at last year’s Big 12 Championships. That’s a final where Kansas already had 4 swimmers, and with 59 individual points made one of their biggest impacts at the meet.

That includes their top two performers from those championships: sophomore Greta Olsen, who was 2nd in 53.90, and freshman Autumn Looney, who was 4th in 54.09.

That helped lead Kansas to a 2nd-place finish at the meet. Their 831 points were only 181 behind the Texas women, who are by far the dominant program in the conference, and almost 300 points ahead of 3rd-place TCU.

While Kansas qualified only one swimmer, sophomore backstroker Dewi Blose, for the 2020 NCAA Championships, that finish was the closest any team has come to the Longhorns since Texas A&M won the Big 12 title in 2012 in their last season before departing for the SEC.

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