USA Swimming National Teamer David Heron Heading to Tennessee

PHOENIX, Arizona, October 15. AS alluded to in today's article regarding Michelle Cefal's commitment to Tennessee, it was mentioned that it was only a matter of time until Matt Kredich got the ball rolling on the men's side of Class of 2013 recruiting. Well, that time is now as USA Swimming National Teamer, and Swimming World five-star recruit, David Heron made the call to become a Volunteer this evening.

Heron will be following his personal coach at Mission Viejo, Tyler Fenwick, to Tennessee as Fenwick made the step up from his club coaching roots to the position of Associate Coach of the newly-merged programs at the University of Tennessee. Heron, the reigning Junior Pan Pacific and U.S. 5K open water champion, is the first building block in Tennessee's revitalized commitment to building not only a strong distance group collegiately, but also an international open water group focused on excellence.

Once he translates his open water and long course meter success to the short course yard competition at the NCAA level, Heron should become a legitimate national title threat. He has strong long course times in the 400-meter free (3:59.53) and 1500-meter free (15:28.50). With his open water focus as a Nadadore, Heron is a bit undervalued by CollegeSwimming.com, which ranks him 102nd in the country and 15th in the state of California due to the sprint-focused mentality of NCAA competition.

“After a lot of thought, I decided that the University of Tennessee swim program was the best fit for me and I am really excited about joining the team,” Heron told Swimming World. “UT has a great coaching staff that is not only going to help me improve in the pool, but will also continue training me for open water swimming. I previously trained with Tyler Fenwick at the Mission Viejo Nadadores. I know that Coach Tyler is a great distance coach and that I will be happy to resume training with him. They also have a really nice training facility and good student resources, which I think is very important.”

The future is beginning to look bright for the Volunteers under Kredich. If he can begin to replicate the same efforts from the women's side, in which he has already secured commitments from six of the top 50 recruits in the nation, there is no telling where the Big Orange could be in the coming years.

Heron appeared on the Morning Swim Show in May to talk about winning the 5K race at USA Swimming open water nationals. He also explained his early thoughts about competing in college.

Recruits: To make sure we have the most updated information on your recruiting, and to earn the highest star ranking you deserve, please either create a new profile, or request to take over your admin-created account in the Swimming World College Recruit Rankings. Then make sure to update your profile with your top times. Click here for information on how to do so.

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