Swimming

Michael Keleher (2023) Commits to Roanoke College, Alma Mater of His Club Coach

February 7, 2023

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Michael Keleher out of Wake Forest, North Carolina, has committed to swim and study at Roanoke College. The current Roanoke head coach, Brandon Ress, grew up swimming for Keleher’s club team, the Marlins of Raleigh.

“I am extremely excited to announce my verbal commitment to Roanoke College where I will be continuing both my academic and athletic careers! I would like to give a HUGE thank you to my parents, as well as all of my coaches and teammates for helping me push to this point. Go Maroons!!!”

Competing for the Marlins of Raleigh year-round, Keleher is a freestyle specialist, swimming everything from the 50-yard freestyle through the mile. His distance freestyle best times come from the 2021 North Carolina Senior Championships where he hit bests in his 1000-yard free (10:10.27) and 1650-yard free (17:22.70). His 200/500-yard free best times also came from 2021 at the North Carolina Marlins of Raleigh Short Course Qualifiers and the Marlins of Raleigh Atom Winter Invite. His 50/100-yard freestyle best times are his most recent, achieved at the 2022 North Carolina Atom Winter Invite where he placed 49th and 60th, respectively.

Best Times SCY:

50 free — 23.26
100 free — 51.70
200 free — 1:51.46
500 free — 4:52.40
1650 free — 17:22.70
100 back — 55.36
200 back — 1:59.91

The Roanoke Maroons compete in the Division III Old Dominion Athletic Conference, and in 2022 they were runner up to William and Lee University, 260.5 – 309.5. They have a very strong freestyle tradition, with a deep roster in just about every freestyle event. The Maroons did graduate their only 100-yard freestyle finalists in the form of Brian Grimmett and Cole Hensen, but otherwise have young talent in every other distance.

With his current bests, Keleher would have placed 14th in the 500 with Roanoke taking the top two spots with graduated senior Ben Tate and sophomore Ethan Brewer. He would have also placed 15th in the 200-yard freestyle, with Roanoke freestylers taking up half of the A-final. His best mile time would have landed him his highest scoring spot in 10th place, with the Roanoke roster being only slightly lighter in that event with only three finalists total.

Keleher joins Austin Hartsell, and Jason Brooks for the class of 2027.

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