Competing just across the street from Stanford, it seemed only natural that Palo Alto High’s Jasmine Tosky eventually would make the short trip across El Camino Real and continue her swimming career with the Cardinal.
Tosky, in her senior year, will be swimming at Avery Aquatic Complex in the coming years, but it will be as a member of a visiting team.
Tosky, the Swimming World Female High School Co-Swimmer of the Year, has decided to become a member of the USC swim program next fall.
Tosky reportedly made up her mind just recently and told both USC coach Dave Salo and Stanford coach Lea Maurer of her decision this past weekend, before she left Monday morning for Singapore as part of a FINA World Cup trip.
Tosky, who is a six-star recruit in the Swimming World College Recruit Rankings system, had her selection reported by Swimming World magazine and confirmed by her Palo Alto Stanford Aquatics club coach, Tony Batis — a USC alum.
While Tosky seemed a natural fit for Stanford, she’ll take her considerable talent south and swim for USC. She’s an immediate threat to compete for an NCAA title in nearly any event.
According to Swimming World, Tosky already owns five times that would have put her into the A final at the 2011 NCAA Division I Championships: 200-yard free 1:44.11; 100 fly 51.92; 200 fly 1:54.63; 200 IM 1:54.80; 400 IM 4:04.65.
Tosky’s 200-yard breast (2:10.56), meanwhile, would have put her into the B final at NCAAs last year, as well.
Tosky splashed to the upper echelon of recruits by becoming the first person to break Misty Hyman’s legendary high school record in the 100-yard fly. Tosky clocked a 51.92 during prelims of the 2011 CIF Central Coast Section Championships to break the oldest girls’ record — public or private school — in the national high school record books, as Hyman’s 52.41 record had stood since 1996.
Tosky was the first to break the 52-second barrier.
Tosky will be honored as the 2011 Female High School Athlete of the Year by the San Jose Sports Hall of Fame on Nov. 9 at the HP Pavilion in San Jose.
The San Jose Sports Hall of Fame, a program of the San Jose Sports Authority, is now in its 17th year of celebrating Santa Clara County’s tremendous sports heritage.
Each November, the San Jose Sports Hall of Fame hosts an induction ceremony and dinner to recognize and honor those athletes and coaches who have contributed to our rich sports history. It is also one of the city’s largest civic events with over 750 business and city leaders in attendance.
This year’s San Jose Sports Hall of Fame inductees are Rudy Galindo (figure skating), former Stanford coach Art Lambert (water polo), Dan Pastorini (football), Peter Ueberroth (sports executive), and Kristi Yamaguchi (figure skating).
In addition to the Hall of Fame inductees, five honorees will be recognized – Male and Female High School Athletes of the Year, Male and Female Amateur Athletes of the Year and a Special Olympics Athlete of the Year.
By Keith Peters/Palo Alto Online
By Keith Peters/Palo Alto Online
By Keith Peters/Palo Alto Online
why oh why did she go to USCM
Her current age group coach (Batis) is a USC Swimming alum. The USC head coach is a member of the USA National Swim Team coaching staff.
Pretty easy to see the decision tree here.
Good luck Jasmine!
Didn’t she swim at Stanford Aquatics? Didn’t Stanford coach have any insight on her? Isn’t Batis now working in Palo Alto? Why go all the way to USC? She could have been the next Julia Smit and the Goddess in IM at Stanford. I think Lee can coach her to be an Olympian.
Dave Salo has experience with Jasmine. She went to China last summer with the USA national team and he’s coached her at other meets. Maybe it was easier for her to go there to be with other Olympians. Maybe the academics at Stanford were an issue, maybe the $$ at Stanford was an issue, maybe she just wanted to get out of town like a lot of college kids… Whatever the reason, she’s worked so hard from an early age and has earned everything speck of attention she’s gotten culminating in the Athlete of the Year award.
She’ll have her work cut out for her at Olympic Trails next summer. There are a lot of swimmers competing to be top two in all of her events. It will be interesting to see if she swims high school this year or if she focuses on trials and forgoes her Senior Spring at CCS…