{"id":655486,"date":"2026-10-18T04:54:18","date_gmt":"2026-10-18T11:54:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=655486"},"modified":"2026-10-18T04:54:18","modified_gmt":"2026-10-18T11:54:18","slug":"swimmac-carolina-sprinter-zona-smith-chooses-florida-for-2028","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/swimmac-carolina-sprinter-zona-smith-chooses-florida-for-2028\/","title":{"rendered":"SwimMAC Carolina Sprinter Zona Smith Chooses Florida for 2028"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>SwimMAC Carolina Sprinter Zona Smith Chooses Florida for 2028<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>NEW COMMIT:\u00a0<\/strong>The University of Florida has secured a new verbal commitment for Fall 2028 from <strong>Zona Smith <\/strong>of Charlotte, N.C. Smith is a U.S. Open qualifier who excels in sprint freestyle.<\/p>\n<p>She will join\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/backstroker-mckenzie-cory-to-become-a-florida-gator-in-fall-2028\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>McKenzie Cory<\/strong><\/a>, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/sprinter-leah-inman-verbally-commits-to-florida-for-2028-29-season\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Leah Inman<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/florida-gators-snag-2028-verbal-from-breaststroker-isabella-green\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Isabelle Green<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>in Gainesville as a member of the Gators\u2019 Class of 2032.<\/p>\n<p>Regarding her commitment, she said:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>&#8220;I\u2019m beyond excited to announce my verbal commitment to continue my academic and athletic career at the University of Florida!!! A big thank you to my family and friends who have always been there, loved, and supported through my swimming career. I want to thank Coach Kevin for believing in me wholeheartedly and pushing me beyond what I thought I could do. And lastly I could not be more grateful to Coach Nesty, Coach Chelsea, Coach Kristen, Coach Whitney and Coach Jack for giving me this fantastic opportunity to be a Gator! I could not be more humbled and excited to be apart of such a fantastic team! GO GATORS \ud83d\udc0a \ud83e\udde1&#8221;<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Smith does her club swimming with SwimMAC Carolina and earned bronze in the 200m free at North Carolina Long Course Seniors before going on to compete at Junior Nationals this past summer. Last winter, she raced at Juniors East, finaled in five events at North Carolina Seniors and placed fourth in the 50 free\/100 free\/200 free\/100 back at Cary Speedo Sectionals.<\/p>\n<p>Smith was selected to USA Swimming&#8217;s National Select Camp earlier this month.<\/p>\n<p>Her best times include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>50 free &#8211; 22.95<\/li>\n<li>100 free &#8211; 49.70<\/li>\n<li>200 free &#8211; 1:47.79<\/li>\n<li>100 back &#8211; 54.41<\/li>\n<li>200 back &#8211; 1:59.92<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Currently a junior at Providence Day School, Smith was the runner-up in the 100 free and 200 free at the 2026 NCISAA State Championships. She has earned NISCA All-American honors.<\/p>\n<p>Florida finished third at the 2026 Southeastern Conference Championships and 10th at the 2026 NCAA Championships.<\/p>\n<p><i>If you have a commitment to share, please send a photo and quote via email to hs@swimmingworld.com.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SwimMAC Carolina Sprinter Zona Smith Chooses Florida for 2028 NEW COMMIT:\u00a0The University of Florida has secured a new verbal commitment for Fall 2028 from Zona Smith of Charlotte, N.C. Smith<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":101,"featured_media":655563,"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":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[61683,138570,32,138569],"class_list":["post-655486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-high-school","tag-agon-high-school-recruits-page","tag-arizona-smith","tag-florida","tag-zona-smith"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\r\n<title>SwimMAC Carolina Sprinter Zona Smith Chooses Florida for 2028 - Swimming World<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/swimmac-carolina-sprinter-zona-smith-chooses-florida-for-2028\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"SwimMAC Carolina Sprinter Zona Smith Chooses Florida for 2028\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"SwimMAC Carolina Sprinter Zona Smith Chooses Florida for 2028 NEW COMMIT:\u00a0The University of Florida has secured a new verbal commitment for Fall 2028 from Zona Smith of Charlotte, N.C. 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