Yuri Nakano, a former Hershey, Pennsylvania High School swimmer and current member of the Indian River State College team, will transfer to North Carolina State at the end of her sophomore season.
Nakano was the Junior College National Champion in 2013 as a freshman, topping teammate Emily Ramirez by over three seconds with a 53.27. She adds to that a 54.35 in the 100 yard back, a 23.44 in the 50 yard free, a 50.02 in the 100 yard free, and a 1:48.41 in the 200 yard free.
Aside from her JuCo title in the 100 fly, she also won national championships in the 100 back, 100 free, and as part of the 400 free relay.
In short: with an anticipated two years of eligibility left, Nakano should have a huge impact on the Wolf Pack, beginning in the fall of 2014 when she joins the team. Her time in the 100 fly is faster than anybody at NC State was last season, and would already put her in position to A-Final at the ACC Championships. She’ll have a shot at joining all three free relays immediately as well.
Nakano originally committed to Penn State in the fall of 2010 before diverting to Indian River: by far the country’s top Junior College program.
At the time, then-Penn-State head coach John Hargis said “Not many people know about Yuri. She spent most of her life in Japan. This is her third year in America. She has ambitions to represent Japan in the Olympics, and we’re going to do everything we can to get her there. She’s got the tools and the work ethic, and we’re excited to have her here.”
Coaching staff is passionate, innovative and has shown they can make kids swim fast wherever they have coached. Just look at the improvement in times for both programs and where they placed at men’s NCAAs in only 2 years! Athletes are fit, training hard, buying into the program and getting a good education. Shows there is more to swimming and recruiting than having a nice, new facility, although I’m sure they’d love to have upgraded facilities. Perhaps the nostalgia of the facilities (competition pool completed in 1962 to host NCAAs, long course built in 1985) helps them recruit….
I’m scratching my head on this one. NC State continues to sign good recruits despite awful facilities, no conference titles in more than 20 years, and pretty much serving as a punching bag for Carolina since anyone can remember. If the coach keeps this up, he will be in line for the best jobs in college coaching.