2019 junior national champion Lydia Jacoby has verbally committed to the University of Texas for the fall of 2022 as she is one of the top breaststrokers in the class of 2022. She swims out of Seward Tsunami Swim Club in Alaska as she was the junior national champion in the 100 breaststroke last summer (1:08.12), just missing qualification for the World Juniors by over a second at last summer’s Nationals.
Jacoby swam at the US Open in San Antonio, Texas as she was second overall in the 100 breaststroke with a 1:07.57, and also finished 13th in the 200 breast (2:32.36) to set best times in both events. In yards her best breaststroke times are 1:00.16 and 2:14.64, which are not up to par with her long course times but has a lot of potential to improve since short course racing opportunities have been difficult to obtain in the last eight months.
Lydia Jacoby finished 12th in the 100 breast at the 2019 Summer Nationals and was ranked 16th in the United States in that event for 2019.
It is very rare for a top tier recruit to come out of Alaska, but Jacoby is one of the first national caliber recruits out of the Last Frontier since Derek Gibb went to Auburn and won multiple national titles in the early 2000s.
Last season, Texas only qualified five swimmers individually to the NCAA meet before the championships were cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic and had to swim IMer Evie Pfeifer on medley relays last season in the breaststroke slot. Although Jacoby will not be on campus for another two years, she will fill a void for the Longhorns and coach Carol Capitani.
Lydia Jacoby will be a welcome addition to a Texas women’s team that has struggled to find a consistent breaststroker for medley relays in recent years. Jacoby is set to join Chase Davison and Lindsey Hosch in Austin in the fall of 2022.
