Swimming

Utah’s Distance Group Gets 2024 Commitment from Minnesota Native Marc Heide

March 25, 2023

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Making the decision to compete in the PAC-12 beginning in the fall of 2024, high school junior Marc Heide has announced his commitment to the University of Utah. Heide will be traveling across the country to continue his swimming career as he currently attends East Ridge High School in Woodbury, Minnesota. He trains year-round with his club team, the Riptide Swim Team. Riptide is most well known as the former club team of US National Team member Regan Smith.

A distance specialist, Heide opened 2023 by hitting a lifetime best in the 1500 free while racing in the long course pool at the Pro Swim Series stop in Knoxville, Kentucky. Racing in a field that included names such as Bobby Finke and Zane Grothe, Heidi finished in a time of 16:58.23, knocking over twenty seconds off of his previous best in the race.

In the short course equivalent of the event, Heide’s personal best comes from just a month early. Competing at a meet at the beginning of December, he knocked ten seconds off of his previous best to touch in 15:40.99. Entering the meet his fastest performance in the event had been 15:50.23, a time which earned him 31st at the 2022 NCSA Championships.

Top SCY Times

500 free – 4:33.24
1000 free – 9:34.45
1650 free – 15:40.99
200 IM – 1:55.46
400 IM – 4:04.69

Utah finished sixth out of six teams at the 2023 PAC-12 Swimming and Diving Championships, finishing less than 25 points short of passing both Arizona and USC. The team was led in the pool by Andrei Ungur, who claimed the program’s only individual swimming medal with a second-place finish in the 100 back. Ungur is one of two Ute’s to qualify for the 2023 NCAA Championships, with breaststroke and IM specialist Jaek Horner joining him in Minneapolis later this month.

With another year of high school left to improve upon his times, Heide already holds times that would make him competitive with Utah’s top distance swimmers from this season. His lifetime best in the 1650 would have made him the team’s fourth fastest performer in the race, while he would have ranked eighth on the team in the 500 free.

While he will be competitive within the Utah program with his current times, he still has a way to go before being able to score at the PAC-12 Championships. This season, it took a time of 15:27.15 to take 16th in the 1650 while in the 500 the 16th fastest time in prelims was 4:23.67.

Heide won’t be the only distance specialist coming to Utah next fall, as the program already has a commitment from one of the top distance swimmers in the class. Multiple-time Texas high school state champion Jones Lambert will join Heide as a member of the class of 2028. Lambert currently boasts lifetime bests of 4:20.06 and 15:10.99 in the 500 and 1650 freestyles. Both of those times would rank him in the top-10 all-time for the program.

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