HAYON

Will Hayon is enjoying his offseason.

The Sheboygan North junior recently committed to swim at Virginia Tech and he also qualified for the Olympic time trials.

Although he did not visit the campus, people have told him the state is amazing.

“It was kind of hard (to pick without visiting), but two of the guys who committed there live in Virginia and decided to stay,” Hayon said. “They said everything about it was awesome. … Seeing stuff on the internet obviously is not like it is in person, but everything I saw was amazing.”

Hayon was also interested in Wisconsin and Notre Dame. But he says the Hokies have one of the best coaches and he knows three other recruits going there.

“The program is kind of on the rise right now, so I just wanted to be a part of that, too,” he said.

Hayon then competed in two swim meets last month in Florida, where he swam a fast enough time in the 100-meter fly to earn a berth in the trials in June in Omaha.

“It’s pretty surreal,” he said. “It is pretty much the biggest meet I’ll kind of ever be to. It sunk in a couple hours after, driving from Orlando to St. Petersburg. It’s kind of crazy I qualified.

“Then when I lowered it even more, it was crazy to see I’m still dropping time as well, giving me hope I can do even better when it comes to trials.”

Only the top two swimmers in each event advance to the Olympics, so Hayon keeps his chances in perspective.

“We’ll see what happens,” he said. “I’ll be going up against pros and a lot of fast people.”

Hayon, who holds every school record except diving, is coming off a second-place finish in the 100-yard butterfly to go with a third-place showing in the 50 free at state.