Virginia Men’s Swimming and Diving Adds Two to Signing Class

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.—Virginia swimming and diving head coach Augie Busch announced Tuesday (June 2) that Alex Albracht (Mission Hills, Kansas) and Murat Yildirim (Istanbul, Turkey) have signed National Letters of Intent to join the Cavalier men for the 2015-16 season.

“I am so happy to welcome Alex and Murat to our men’s team,” Busch said. “These two young men are high in character, great students and gifted swimmers, breaststrokers in particular. Together they will help to fill a huge breaststroke need created by our men’s graduating class. The future is very bright for these young men. They have shown remarkable and drastic improvement over the last year and a half. They will add quality depth to an incoming class that is very enthusiastic about making big impacts next year. We cannot wait to get started with them.”

The duo joins the group of Zach Fong, Dan Golczewski, Bryce Keblish, Gust Kouvaris and Sam Magnan, who all signed in the fall.

Alex Albracht
Breast/IM
Mission Hills, Kansas – Rockhurst High School
Kansas City Swim Academy
Short-Course Yards
100 Breast: 56.04
200 Breast: 2:00.86
200 IM: 1:50.97
400 IM: 3:58.93
Long-Course Meters
100 Breast: 1:05.44
200 Breast: 2:20.66
200 IM: 2:10.03
400 IM: 4:40.58
• 2014 Missouri state champion in the 100 breast, state runner-up in 200 IM
• State champion with 400 free relay and 200 medley relay
• 2014 Kansas City Star All-Metro Missouri Boys Swimmer of the Year

Murat Yildirim
Breast/IM
Istanbul, Turkey
Short-Course Meters
100 Breast: 1:02.04
200 Breast: 2:16.45
200 IM: 2:04.95
• Recorded top-five times in 100m breast, 200m breast and 200m IM at 2014 Turkish Short-Course Championships
• Age-group Turkish national champion in the 100m breast and 200m breast at the 2014 Turkish Long-Course Championships
• Member of the Turkish National Team since 2011

Swimming news courtesy of Virginia Swimming.