Why Experience Matters With a Pool Contractor: Vanderbilt Secures Verbal from Kentucky State Finalist Caroline Mercer (2022)

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Caroline Mercer of Louisville, KY has announced her decision to swim at Vanderbilt University beginning in the 2022-2023 season. She competes year-round for Lakeside Swim Team and she is a Louisville Collegiate School, where she transferred sophomore year.

I am extremely excited to announce my verbal commitment to continue my academic and athletic career at Vanderbilt University! I would like to thank my family, friends, teammates, and coaches for their endless support. This would not be possible without them. I cannot wait to be a commodore! #anchordown

Before transferring to Louisville Collegiate, Mercer attended Sacred Heart Academy. The freshman competed at the Kentucky High School Region Five Championships in February of 2019. She swam the 100 fly, touching 4th in prelims in a time of 58.31. In finals, she finished 5th, taking 0.62 seconds off of her prelims time to go a 57.59.

Later that month, Mercer swam the 100 fly at the Kentucky High School State Championships. Similar to the regional meet, she earned a spot in the A-final after touching 5th in prelims. She went a 57.23 in finals, going 0.36 seconds faster than she had two weeks earlier.

Mercer represented Lakeside Swim Team at the Speedo Champions Series in Greensboro in the summer of 2019. She swam the 100 and 200 back, the 100 and 200 fly, and the 200 and 400 IM, making it back for finals swims in each. She swam in the C-final of the 200 fly and 400 IM and the D-final for the four others. She concluded the meet with personal best times in the 200 back, the 100 and 200 fly, and the 200 and 400 IM.

Top SCY Times:

50 back 27.62
100 back – 56.61
200 back – 2:03.15
100 fly – 57.20

Mercer will likely be one of Vanderbilt’s top backstrokers when she joins the team in the fall of 2022. Her 100 and 200 back would have been ranked third among the Commodores during the 2019-2020 season. Tonner DeBeer – the team’s 50 and 100 back record-holder – will graduate in the spring of 2022, meaning the two women will not overlap and train together. Similarly, Abigail Burke and Lauren Bergmann – two more top backstrokers – will also graduate before Mercer arrives on campus.

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