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The #1 ranked recruit in the girls’ class of 2020 Regan Smith has announced her verbal commitment to the Stanford Cardinal. Her announcement comes less than 24 hours after that of the class’ #6 recruit, Lillie Nordmann, also to the Cardinal. This leaves just one swimmer, #19 Janelle Rudolph, in the top 20 in the class to announce a verbal commitment.
Smith is currently the fastest 200 yard backstroker in history thanks to a 1:47.16 done at the Cary, North Carolina Sectional Championships in March. She is the 2nd-fastest 100 yard backstroker in history, with a 49.66 from that same meet. Only the defending NCAA Champion, Beata Nelson, has been faster (49.18) and only on one occasion.
She is also a member of the USA Swimming National Team. In 2017, when she was only 15 years old, she won both the 100 and 200 meter backstrokes at the FINA World Junior Championships, and finished 8th at the senior World Championships in the 200 back. That made her the youngest swimmer since 2007 to qualify for the FINA World Championships for the US.
In 2018, she tied for 1st in the 200 back, and was 3rd in both the 100 back and 200 fly, at the US National Championships. She built off that to earn her first senior-level international championship medal: a bronze in the 200 back at the Pan Pacific Championships.
Best Times in Yards/Meters:
- 50 free – 22.51/26.11
- 100 free – 48.07/55.73
- 200 free – 1:43.27/1:58.44
- 500y/400m free – 4:37.10/4:10.33
- 100 back – 49.66/58.45
- 200 back – 1:47.16/2:06.43
- 100 fly – 50.45/58.52
- 200 fly – 1:51.24/2:07.42
- 200 IM – 1:56.58/2:15.85
Smith will likely enter her freshman season at Stanford as the favorite to win the national title in both the 100 and 200 backstrokes. Her best time in the 100 and 200 fly fly would have both put her 5th at NCAAs in 2019. She will start her career penciled in for a minimum of 50 points at NCAAs for the 3-time defending champion Cardinal.
Stanford had the best freshman backstroker in the country in 2018-2019 as well, in Taylor Ruck,
This gives Stanford 2 of the top 6 commitments in the class: a rebound from 2019 when they only had 1 in the top 20 (#12 Alexandra Crisera).
Smith trains with Riptide in suburban Minneapolis
If you have a commitment to report, please send an email with a photo (landscape, or horizontal, looks best) and a quote to [email protected].
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Cool and fun to watch Regan develop since she’s 10. From NAG records to olympic golds next year.
Great to see her at Stanford. She will continue to improve her freestyle there. And maybe one day a miracle could happen with her breaststroke for a magical 200 IM? 😎
Best wishes.
Regan Smith’s 200m free is 3.04s slower than Hosszu’s while her 400m free is 5.37s slower. At least compared to other IM swimmers, Regan might be better at the 400.
What a Champ !! Great decision , wishing her the very best . 👌
they did surgery on a grape
50.4 – I had forgotten she is a great flyer, too. She’s quite a talent.
I don’t follow junior swimmers on social media. I had no idea she had blond hair.
She is like David Nolan and Missy Franklin swimming ridiculously fast in high school. If she improves at Stanford, she’ll be setting World Records.
I mean technically her American record 2 back short course is a world record
She’ll be setting world records before she gets to Stanford.
Congratulations. Cost at Stanford is $67k/year. So 1/4 million + for 4 years. Only have so many athletic scholarships. Make less than $110k, cost drops to $12k. Give every swimmer a 20% scholarship and voila, everybody gets a full ride. Must be hard to recruit when you can offer every swimmer a full ride.
You cannot combine athletic aid and need-based aid.
Where is this rule stated?
Swimming is an expensive sport. Safe to say most parents of swimmers at that level make much more than 110k when you consider the training costs, daily food, tech suits and travel meets required to perform good enough to be recruited by Stanford (women’s) or Cal or Texas men’s programs.
Either way, Tree Hugger is right. At Stanford, you can get either financial (need-based only, they don’t offer academic scholarships) or athletic aid, not both. So say your parents make 100k a year including benefits. I’m sure Greg and Tracy would work it out with their contracts in such a way that they can get you into the school and on the team without giving you athletic aid, qualifying you… Read more »
Wrong Decision. Should have gone pro 😐
Why can’t she change her mind? Why not commit now and wait till the Olympics and figure out the money options and then make her choice. This is a great decision, it still gives her every option. Congrats!
Agree–Regan’s timing here is a gift!
She will. I give it two years.