The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

ONE of the country’s elite swimmers at the junior level, Jared Fitzgerald recently announced his decision on where he plans to continue his career at the collegiate level.

Fitzgerald committed to join the University of Indiana Hoosiers’ men’s swimming programme for the Fall 2017 semester.

He most recently competed at the Junior Pan Pacific Championships as one of six members of Team Bahamas where he made the B final in both the 50m and 100m Free.

Fitzgerald is now in his senior year at a renowned boarding institution, The Peddie School in Hightstown, New Jersey.

Peddie boasts a nationally-acclaimed swimming programme with students or alumni representing their nations in every Olympics since 1992.

The Peddie’s boys’ swim team won the Eastern Interscholastic Swimming and Diving Championships in 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2015.

At this year’s event, Fitzgerald earned two fourth place finishes (in the 100m free and 200m free) and was a member of Peddie’s first-place 400m free relay and 200 free relay, the latter of which he set the meet record.

Fitzgerald outlined the reasons behind his decision with SwimSwam.com, ranging from a connection with the coaching staff to a recommendation from fellow national team member Laura Morley.

“I made my decision to commit to Indiana because I felt as though IU was the place for me. After taking a trip and meeting the team and coaches, and seeing what IU has to offer, I was certain that I was going to be happy for the next four years of my collegiate swimming career. The coaches believed in my potential, and I’m very happy and humbled that they offered me a spot to swim for their great team,” he said. “I have two very close friends on the team, Laura Morley, and Joe Lane. Laura helped with my decision a lot because we are both a part of the Bahamas national team, and she supported me a lot through this decision. I could not be more excited to swim there!”

In addition to Fitzgerald, the Hoosiers have recruited internationally with their sprint group as of late, bringing in Bruno Blaskovic from Croatia, Mohamed Samy from Egypt, and Harold Duke from Emory University to add to the already outstanding squad of Blake Pieroni, Ali Khalafalla, Anze Tavcar, Oliver Patrouch and Sam Lorentz.

He is the son of Minister of Education, Science and Technology Jerome Fitzgerald and Zaria Fitzgerald.