LA PALMA, California, October 23. THE California Golden Bears picked up another top-flight recruit in the Class of 2014 today as La Mirada Armada’s Ryan Kao has decided to spend his college years in Berkeley.<\/p>\n
“The decision was so difficult,” Kao told Swimming World. “Each school I visited had really great things to offer. In the end I knew Berkeley was the best fit for me, both athletically and academically. I am very excited to work with both Coach Dave [Durden] and Coach Yuri [Suguiyama] in the next part of my swimming career. Go Bears!”<\/p>\n
Kao, the 34th-ranked recruit in the Class of 2014 by CollegeSwimming.com, will provide head coach Dave Durden with a middle-distance star who also has some background in the 200 backstroke events.<\/p>\n
Kao has focused on the middle-distance events with his top recent times coming in the 500-yard free with a 4:20.28 at the CIF-SS Division 2 Championships this May as well as a 3:54.69 in the 400-meter freestyle at the Speedo Junior Nationals this August. <\/p>\n
He also connected with a 1:36.76 in the 200-yard freestyle at the CIF-SS divisional meet as well to provide the Golden Bears with a solid 800 freestyle relay option after his senior season.<\/p>\n
Kao, however, also was a strong backstroker in 2011 with a 1:50.08 in the 200-yard back at the 2011 California Spring JO’s as well as a 2:07.78 in the 200-meter backstroke at the 2011 Winter National Championships. This past year, however, he focused more on middle-distance events after a bit of a transition year in 2012 when he dropped a 1:49.02 in the 200-yard fly and a 15:21.56 in the 1650-yard free at the 2012 Speedo Winter Junior Nationals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LA PALMA, California, October 23. THE California Golden Bears picked up another top-flight recruit in the Class of 2014 today as La Mirada Armada’s Ryan Kao has decided to spend<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,6,24690,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","category-college","category-frontpage","category-high-school"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n