Ava Kennedy has verbally committed to swim for the University of Georgia in the fall of 2021. She will stay close to home and become a 4th-generation Georgia Bulldog.

An Athens, Georgia native, Kennedy trains with the Athens Bulldog Swim Club under Harvey Humphries, who was a member of the University of Georgia staff until recently. She also attends, and swims for, Athens Academy locally.

In February, she finished 2nd at the Georgia 1-5A (small school) High School State Championship meet in the 50 yard free in 23.68 and placed 4th in the 100 free in 52.42. Her best times in each event are a little better than that.

Kennedy is a real sprint freestyle specialist and does have a Winter Junior Championships cut in the 50 free in long course (26.87). The freestyle races are the events upon which Jack Bauerle has built Georgia into one of the country’s top women’s swimming programs, which included 3 NCAA Championships in 4 seasons in 2013, 2014, and 2016.

Kennedy’s best times as of now are not within SEC scoring range yet, but they are rapidly trending in that direction. During her junior season of high school alone, she swam the 8 fastest 100 yard freestyle times of her career, dropping her best time from 54.56 to 52.11. A similar assault on her 50 free best time saw her drop from a 24.65 to a 23.56 as a junior.

She is joined in the Bulldogs’ class of 2021 by US World Junior Championship team distance freestyler Rachel Stege, sprint freestyler and butterflier Elsa Fretz, sprint freestyler and butterflier Lily Gardner, South African butterflier and middle-distance freestyler Dune Coetzee, breaststroker Mary Martin, sprint freestyler and butterflier Hailey Galbraith, and sprint freestyler Briana Roberson. The class will serve to dramatically rebuild the Bulldogs’ sprint foundation after they graduate most of that group between last season and this coming season.