After taking the end of last week to focus on the Arena Pro Swim Series at Santa Clara, we’re resuming our countdown of the 2015 NCAA recruiting classes, with #5-8 on the women’s side today, which includes two Pac 12 schools, one Big Ten, and one SEC. The gap between #10 from last week and #7 here is pretty slim, followed by a pretty big gap to #6 and #5
If you missed last week’s article, which included our methodology and a link to the full list of athletes, click here.
#8: UCLA Bruins
Top-tier additions: #15 Caroline McTaggart, Emma Schanz, Mary Pelton, Sandra Sao,
The rest: Alex Hubel, Elena Escalas, Sabrina Kwok
UCLA has been a perennial 4th and 5th place finisher, but the Bruins have built a solid core now over the past three recruiting classes that will continue to rewrite their record books. In total, new team standards have been set in 13 of 19 events, including four of five relays this past season. With the seven swimmers in this class. led by Caroline McTaggart and Emma Schanz, expect that trend to continue.
Despite their youth, UCLA was highly competitive with USC, Arizona, and up-and-coming Arizona State at Pac 12’s across the four shorter relays. The Bruins are bringing back at least three of four swimmers of their 200/400 relays, with McTaggart–the #15 recruit in our class–providing an immediate upgrade each. A 22.7/48.8/1:47.4 freestyler, McTaggart is a huge get for the Bruins who can jump right in alongside star sophomore Linnea Mack in the sprint freestyle events. She’s also an excellent butterflyer at 52.8, putting her in contention for a spot on both medley relays.
Schanz is one of the most intriguing stories to come out of this class (she spends a majority of the year training in a 20-yard hotel pool without a coach on deck, as Mike Gustafson covered in this 2013 article), and is definitely a high-potential talent. Despite the severe disadvantage, her backstroke bests (52.8/1:54.4) are already good enough for a pair of top six finishes at Pac 12’s. She’s a great breaststroker (1:01.4/2:09.0) as well, giving her the two key legs necessary for a high-quality short course IM.
Mid-distance freestyler/IMer Mary Pelton (yes, that Pelton) and distance freestyler Sandra Soe are the other two notables. Pelton will arrive on campus this fall as UCLA’s fastest 200 freestyler (1:46.5) and 200 IMer (1:58.4) , while Soe will fit in nicely alongside school record holder Katy Campbell in the 500 (4:45.2) and 1650 (16:13.4).
#7: Michigan Wolverines
Top-tier additions: Siobhan Haughey, Becca Postoll, Astrid Swensen, Jamie Yeung
The rest: Katie Duggan, Catie Deloof
On paper, this isn’t the same caliber of class the Wolverines brought in last year (Gillian Ryan, Clara Smiddy, Hannah Moore), but this group, led by Hong Kong record holder Siobhan Haughey, easily falls inside the top 10. Haughey is arguably the #1 college-bound sprinter in the country, with lifetime long course bests of 25.4/54.5/1:59.7, all of which would sit among the top 3 times of the U.S. swimmers in this class. She hasn’t had a ton of short course competition, but she is the unofficial Hong Kong national record holder in the 100 SCM free (53.72) from a World Cup appearance last year.
Haughey will be joined by countrymate and fellow Hong Kong National Teamer Jamie Yeung, a 1:11/2:33 breaststroker. Like Haughey, Yeung doesn’t have a ton of short course experience, but she has a strong international track record, including a pair of individual bronze medals at the 2013 Youth Asian Games.
Possibly joining Haughey in the sprint group this fall will be Becca Postoll, a 23.3/49.5/1:46.5 freestyler from a loaded SwimMAC Carolina squad that has smashed nearly NAG relay record possible over the past few years. Expect her to provide immediate relay depth and solid individual points at Big Ten’s; she’ll be third-fastest Wolverine on the roster in the 100 and fourth-fastest in the 200 coming into this fall.
Massachusetts butterflyer Astrid Swensen is the final major piece of this class. While she doesn’t have a ton of top-end speed (she’s just 54.6 in the 100), Swensen is an excellent 200 flyer, with a best time of 1:57.6 that already puts her right in the Big Ten A-final.
#6: Auburn Tigers
Top-tier additions: #11: Aly Tetzloff, Bailey Nero, Erin Falconer, Shannon McKernan
The rest: Katie Money, Michelle Turek
The Auburn women are still a large step from where they were a decade ago, but the six women signed on to join the Tigers have the makings of a core to build around. Anchoring the class is free/back/fly sprinter and #11 recruit Aly Tetzloff—a 22.7/50.0 freestyler, who also boasts lifetime bests of 53.6 in the 100 back and 52.7 in the 100 fly. Essentially, she’s a classic Auburn recruit who can provide an instant upgrade to at least three Tiger relays. With the graduation of Megan Fonteno and departure of Valerie Hull, Tetzloff will need to deliver early to help bring the Tigers back up the SEC and NCAA rankings.
Joining Tetzloff in the sprint group is Shannon McKernan, a 23.1/49.9 freestyler who trained under legendary Germantown Academy couch Dick Shoulberg. McKernan is another very solid sprint piece for coaches Brett Hawke and new associate women’s head coach Lauren Hancock, who could fit in nicely on Tigers relays with even just a bit of improvement.
The next name on the list is Bailey Nero, a Fort Collins, Colorado flyer/IMer who shown some huge improvement over the past 6-8 months:
| Event | Lifetime best, Nov 2014 | Lifetime best, present |
| 100 fly | 53.84 | 52.81 |
| 200 fly | 1:58.57 | 1:55.71 |
| 200 IM | 2:00.65 | 1:59.20 |
| 400 IM | 4:16.03 | 4:12.39 |
Swims like these have made Nero’s value skyrocket; those fly/400 IM times that were C-final-caliber are now A-finals at SEC’s. Considering the Tigers are returning just two scorers in the 100 fly and one in the 200 fly and 400 IM, Nero will help resolve a big need for the Tigers.
The last big name is Erin Falconer, 23.2/50.1/1:46.4 freestyler who is already good for a mid-B-final in the 200, and comes in as Auburn’s second-fastest 200 swimmer. That should give the Tigers a big boost in the 800 free relay, where they finished a highly disappointing 11th at 2015 SEC’s.
#5: Stanford Cardinal
Top-Tier Additions: #6 Ella Eastin, #19 Leah Stevens, Kim Williams, Kaitlyn Albertoli
The rest: n/a
Not included: #1 Katie Ledecky (deferral)
The deferral of arguably the best freestyler of all time pushes the Cardinal down this list a few notches, but the remaining pieces addressing some very large needs. The Cardinal scored zero points between the IM’s and distance freestyle events at NCAA’s last season last season, which Ella Eastin, Kim Williams, and Leah Stevens were brought in to address.
Eastin, the #6 recruit on our list, is the premier IMer in the class, with times (1:53.9/4:05.2) good for A-finals at last year’s NCAA’s, including the #2 returning time in the 200. She’s very good at all four strokes (it’s hard to go sub-1:54 if you’re not), but she has really shone through in butterfly (52.5/1:54.4) and breaststroke (1:00.3) events individually in the past 6-8 months. You won’t see her on either 200 relay with all of Stanford’s sprint talent, but with that 100 fly time and a 49.2/1:47.6 in the 100/200 freestyles, don’t be surprised if she lands on at least one Cardinal relay.
In addition to Eastin, the arrival of 2014 Junior Pan Pac teammates Stevens and Williams turn the 400 IM from arguably Stanford’s weakest event to one of its strongest. Stevens, our #19 recruit, is one of the best distance freestylers entering the collegiate ranks (1:47.9/4:43.1/16:07.7), with a surprising amount of breaststroke talent to mix in (1:02.0/2:13.5), making her a candidate for an NCAA-scoring 400 IM if she can improve her front half (current best time is 4:11.9).
Williams, a Bellevue, Washington native, is another highly-touted IMer, but is a cut above Stevens in the breaststroke department. She’s more established in long course, where she was a double winner at last summer’s Junior Nationals and a bronze medalists at Junior Pan Pacs, but her 1:58.8/4:12.8 in the 200/400 IM and 2:11.3 in the 200 breast give her three events where she can be an immediate difference maker.
The last piece of this class is Kaitlyn Albertoli of San Clemente, who will add a layer of much-needed depth to the Cardinal sprint group; for as dominant as Stanford has been in the sprint freestyle relays the last few seasons (they’ve won 5 of 8 relays at NCAA’s since 2012, and narrowly missed out on a sixth), they don’t have much beyond their top 4-5 talents. At 22.7/49.2, Albertoli likely won’t jump on A relays her freshman year, but should be an important piece for the next four years.
I can’t wait until Meghan Small goes to college—I’d love to see her and Eastin battle it out in the IMs. Also hoping Williams can establish herself as a better short course swimmers, ’cause of she can translate her long course times to short course… she could be a force to be reckoned with as with Stevens as well, but Stevens also has those freestyles that she can swim aside from IM.
Haley Black is transferring from Western Kentucky to Auburn ,not sure if you include transfers but she’s definitely a worthy addition to Auburns class
BEARS TROJANS and WILDCATS make the final four?
Schanz is one of the most intriguing stories to come out of this class (she spends a majority of the year training in a 20-yard hotel pool without a coach on deck, as Mike Gustafson covered in this 2013 article), and is definitely a high-potential talent. Despite the severe disadvantage, her backstroke bests (52.8/1:54.4) are already good enough for a pair of top six finishes at Pac 12’s. She’s a great breaststroker (1:01.4/2:09.0) as well, giving her the two key legs necessary for a high-quality short course IM.
This is interesting since most backstrokers are poorer at Breaststroke and vica versa.
When are you uploading the boys?
Next week!
Eastin will be immediately a top 3 contender in the 200 IM and the girl to beat in the 400 IM.
Eastin should be a contender in the 400IM, but I’d say it’s unfair and premature to make her the favorite going in. In my mind, Flickinger and Zeiger are right there with her at the moment, and I’d give the edge to the senior Flickinger based simply on experience.
Will be eager to see if Eastin benefits from the changes in her first year of college – Coach Meehan will now have two sub-4:39 400m IMers in the pool.
She swam 4.05 while she was a 1.56 200 IMer. She’s now a 1.53 200 IMer.
Meehan is a great coach and she will have great training partners to push her like Williams or DiRado.
I think she can swim a sub 4 minutes in her first college season.
Where would Stanford had landed without all the athletes deferring?
All the athletes deferring?
sakibomb25 – well, barring disaster (which we always must discount in this sort of ranking), Ledecky coming in right away would be good for a minimum of 10 NCAA titles over the next four years.
So, probably #1.
Why “all the athletes deferring”?
I see only KL.
But perhaps I didn’t understand the question.
Yes, Ledecky was the only Stanford commit (that we know of so far) deferring, but I think the commenter was asking “if Ledecky hadn’t deferred, and if all of the other swimmers in other team’s classes hadn’t deferred…” like Abbey Weitzeil.
It feels like this year’s narrative of the Bruins’ future prospects could have been lifted from just about any year in the past decade – just substitute the promising new names.
Trying not to be mean, but I think this is a fair question: how many more top 10 recruiting classes before the Bruins actually finish in the top 10? Is it this year? Is it next?
Agreed. Coaching, coaching, coaching…