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Sloane Barr of Apex, North Carolina has announced her commitment to swim and study at the University of North Carolina, starting in the fall of 2027. She trains year-round with the TAC Titans, a club team based in Cary.
Barr made the announcement on Instagram, writing:
I am beyond grateful to announce my verbal commitment to continue my academic and athletic career at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill! I would like to thank my family, friends, coaches (especially Coach Bruce) and the Lord for guiding me through this process. I would also like to thank coaches Mark, Kirk, Kayla, and Andrew for giving me this incredible opportunity! GO HEELS!!
The future Tar Heel is a versatile middle-distance swimmer who excels in the 200 and 500 freestyle, 200 and 400 IM, and 200 backstroke. She’s been on a strong trajectory throughout her high school career, but the 2024-25 season saw her chop off several seconds in all of her main events—a strong sign with less than a year before arriving in Chapel Hill.
Barr’s first breakthrough of the season was the Big Southern Classic in November, where she swam personal bests of 2:04.14 in the 200 IM, 4:19.91 in the 400 IM, 1:50.90 in the 200 free, as well as a season-best 2:03.74 in the 200 back.
At the Speedo Sectionals, held in Cary in March, Barr sliced off time in all three of those events once again. She touched the wall fourth in the 400 IM at 4:18.29, broke 1:50 for the first time in the 200 free with a 1:49.65 to take sixth, and notched 2:03.01 for seventh in the 200 IM.
While most meets in the summer are held in long course meters, Barr swam at the TAC Titans’ Summer Sizzler meet at the beginning of August in a short course pool, where she obliterated all of her personal bests once more. She clocked 1:47.94 in the 200 free, 4:55.89 in the 500 free, 2:01.68 in the 200 IM, and 4:17.84 in the 400 IM, and finally undercut her best in the 200 back down to a near sub-2-minute mark of 2:00.27. She won the freestyles and took runner-up in all of the other events.
Top SCY Times:
- 200 Freestyle: 1:47.94
- 500 Freestyle: 4:55.89
- 200 IM: 2:01.68
- 400 IM: 4:17.84
- 200 Backstroke: 2:00.27
Under the direction of head coach Mark Gangloff, the Tar Heel women finished sixth out of 15 teams at the 2025 Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Championships.
The conference meet offers ‘A,’ ‘B,’ and ‘C’ finals, and it took times of 1:58.69 and 4:16.30 in the IMs, 1:46.56 and 4:46.77 in the mid-distance freestyles, and 1:56.25 in the 200 back to make the top 24 in her primary events last season. Based on those marks, she’s best positioned to score in the 200 free and 400 IM once she arrives on campus, assuming her improvement trajectory continues.
According to the team’s 2024–25 depth chart, she would have ranked sixth in the 400 IM, eighth in the 200 free, ninth in thw 200 back, 10th in the 500 free, and 11th in the 200 IM.
Barr joins Maddy Boland, Sofie Vanyo, and Maren Byrne in committing to UNC’s Class of 2031.
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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So much for academics…
Explain???
Hmm feels the need to comment on every UNC commitment post (dating back over 8 years at this point) because of an academic scandal involving members of the UNC football and basketball teams that happened over 10 years ago. Absolutely not excusing what happened, but it was over a decade ago and did not involve anyone from the swim & dive team.
UNC is currently ranked the 4th best public school and 26th best overall school in the US by USNWR and is one of the premier research universities in the country and world.
Any swimmer who commits, attends, and graduates from UNC is getting an excellent education and clearly is focused on a combination of excellent academics… Read more »
You neglected the “30+ years of academic fraud” part…