March is the month for the NCAA championships. Going in, Kohlton is ranked 6th in the 100 backstroke event. He had qualified with the A cut during a long course meet against Florida. That meet also brought Kohlton his second Olympic Trial cut. Currently out of the 89 swimmers who have qualified for Olympic Trials, Kohlton has the 24th fastest time in the 100 back, and out of 63 swimmers who currently have cuts in the 200 back he is the 41st fastest . Kohlton currently appears to be the fastest Auburn backstrokeran admiral feat considering that Auburn is arguably the top swim school in the nation (5 time NCAA champion) and Kohlton is only a freshman.
So where did all that come from? Realize that in 2005, when Kohlton was only a sophomore in high school, he swam a 49.66 in the 100 back. For the 15-16 age group, that time places him on the All-time Top 100 list for all swimmers in America. For instance, this list has Michael Phelps as 3rd with a time of 48.64. Kohlton was just over a second away from Michael while at the same age. Even before that, Kohltons drive took him to multiple National Age Group Top-16 rankings, as well as setting records in Central California Swimming. His goals and aspirations were truly beyond the normand more importantly, his level of commitment in training to reach those goals matched. This is reflective of the amount of effort and consistency that Kohlton exhibited in training early on in his swimming career, and characteristics that his current coaches have recognized as still going strong.