Notre Dame suffered a blow in April when Zach Yeadon, an All-American distance swimmer, entered the NCAA transfer portal after three years. A month later, there’s some good news to be had. It won’t help the program right away, but there’s more hope for the future now.
Chris Guiliano, the top sprint swimmer from the Class of 2021 who had yet to commit anymore, has verbally committed to Notre Dame. During his junior season at Daniel Boone High School in Douglassville, Pennsylvania, he won a state championship in the 200-yard freestyle. He might have won more events were it not for the cancelation of the rest of the meet.
There’s a good reason Guiliano is regarded as Notre Dame’s top recruit from the Class of 2021. He’s already putting up times that would blow past most of the team. His personal best of 20.27 seconds in the 50 freestyle would have been the second-best on the Irish, his 1:351.81 would have been third, and his 44.29 in the 100 freestyle would have been fourth. For an Irish team that struggled in sprint events last season, Guiliano can’t arrive in South Bend soon enough.