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Brady Calkins, a California resident, sends his verbal commitment to swim at Notre Dame with the class of 2025. He committed before Notre Dame was suspended for the 2024-2025 season.
“I am beyond grateful and excited to announce my commitment to continue my academic and athletic careers at the University of Notre Dame! First, I would like to thank my family, friends, coaches, and teachers for their unconditional love, support, and guidance which has helped shape me into the person I am today. Furthermore, I would like to thank the entire coaching staff and team at Notre Dame for giving me this opportunity! I can’t wait to join the family! Go Irish!!”
Calkins is currently a senior at Jesuit High School and he swims for the Sierra Marlins Swim Team in Folsom, California. He has two US Open qualifying times and three Summer Juniors qualifying times. He is also a two-time Scholastic All-American in 2023 and 2024.
His most recent meet was West Winter Juniors at the beginning of December where he had three finals swims. He finished 7th in the 200 back, coming in at 1:45.74 which was just under a second slower than his U.S. Open qualifying time of 1:44.98 from the 2023 Winter Juniors. His 100 back was 48.82 for 16th. That was just off his best of 48.35 from the 2024 CIF State Championships in May, which is his other U.S. Open time. He went 1:48.29 in the 200 IM to finish 20th and get the Summer Juniors qualifying time. He also picked up a Summer Juniors time leading off the 800 freestyle relay in 1:37.22.
At the 2024 CIF State Championships, Calkins had two A-Final swims. He finished 6th in the 200 IM, going 1:49.02 in finals after swimming 1:48.44 in the prelims. He also finished 5th in the 100 backstroke, going 48.57 to add a bit from his prelims swim of 48.35.
At the 2024 Summer Junior championships, Calkins finished 11th in the 200 backstroke (2:04.90) and 20th in the 100 backstroke (57.38). He also time-trialed the 200 IM at the meet going 2:08.07
Best Times SCY:
- 200 free: 1:37.22
- 100 back: 48.35
- 200 back: 1:44.98
- 200 IM: 1:48.29
Notre Dame competes in the ACC, and they finished 2nd at last year’s championships to NC State. Notre Dame put two men in the 200 IM final, and three in the 100 and 200 back finals at last year’s ACC Championships.
It is difficult to predict where Calkins will end up because the Notre Dame men had their season suspended, but they will be back in action before Calkins arrives on campus in the fall. Based on last year’s times, however, his highest ranking comes in the 200 backstroke where his time would have placed him 5th. He will need to drop a bit in order to qualify for finals, as right now he sits just outside finals in all of his events, at 28th in the 200 back, and 33rd in the 200 IM and 100 back.
He also has some competition among his own class, as Notre Dame also picked up a commitment from the #3 100 backstroker in the class, Zack Oswald. Oswald has recorded best times of 46.82 in the 100 back and 1:44.25 in the 200 back.
Calkins will arrive next fall as a member of the class of 2029 along with Ethan DiFronzo, Evan Conti, Zack Oswald, Min-Gyo Jang, Owen Tarrington, and Luke Bucaro.
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Jack Armour (TFA, 2025) is also apart of that Notre Dame class for next fall!