Over the next few weeks, as the Long Course season closes out, new freshman are arriving on campus, and fans everywhere ramp up for another exciting NCAA Season, we will be running a team-by-team preview of the upcoming NCAA season. Starting with the no.12 teams and finishing with the defending National Championships (Texas men and Florida women) we will work our way down the top finishers from last year’s NCAAs and will also jump into some rising teams that we expect to break into the top tier this season. Click here to see the other women’s previews, and click here to see all of the previews, Men’s and Women’s.
Key Losses: Kate Fesenko (42 NCAA Points, 2 NCAA relays), Donna Smailis (4 NCAA relays), Amy Korthauer (14 NCAA diving points)
Key Additions: Sara Delay (Free), Lindsay Vrooman (distance free), Stephanie Armstrong (sprint free), Cristina Gonzalez (sprint free), Brenna MacLean (fly), Bronwyn Pasloski (breaststroke)
2010 NCAA Lookback – When looking back at the 2010 NCAA Championships, one wonders exactly where Indiana’s 133 points came from. Sure, Kate Fesenko was an absolute superstar and scored Indiana’s first NCAA swimming individual national title, where she knocked off Florida’s Gemma Spofforth, who was bidding for her 4th straight crown in the 200 back. But she only scored 42 individual points. That leaves 91 unaccounted for.
Most teams around the 10th position rack up huge relay points. Indiana, however, only had three relays final, with only one of those three in an A final. That’s only another 44 points. 16 went to divers. 28 left.
This means that Indiana scored 70 points from 4 different individual swimmers, but was still only able to final three relays. This seems sort of an odd combination in the modern world of collegiate swimming.
10th Place? Really? – But when you look at where those points come from, it’s no wonder that Indiana is a sort of underrated team on the national scene. They don’t score their points in glamour events.
Junior Nikki White finaled in all three of the long freestyle events—the 200, 800, and the mile. Redshirt senior Ashley Jones was 7th in the 400 IM. Junior Margaux Farrell placed 11th in the 200 free. And of course there was the incredible Kate Fesenko, who won the 200 back, was second in the 100 back, and also B-finaled in the 200 fly.
Indiana has shown an amazing ability to develop outstanding distance swimmers. Unfortunately, with the format of the collegiate swimming schedule, this doesn’t always translate to big relay points. Not surprisingly, Indiana placed 5th in the 800 free relay. Beyond that, their highest relay placing was 13th in the 400 yard free and medley relays. The Hoosiers have certainly found a way around the double-point-value-scoring that emphasizes relay success at National Championship meets.
A Strategy that Scores – But head coach Ray Looze has found a formula that works for the Hoosiers. Indiana has three-straight NCAA Top-10 finishes, a feat which several more highly-regarded programs cannot boast, and have won 3 out of the last 4 Big Ten titles.
Relay Overhaul – This season, Indiana has found a group of versatile recruits who will continue this tradition in the distance events, but will also bring an immediate relay impact.
Freestylers – Indiana’s top three recruits are all freestylers who have the potential to be huge for the Hoosiers in multiple distances.
Sara Delay swam a 22.98 in the 50 free in textile. Times like that will be a revelation for a Hoosier team that didn’t qualify a 200 free relay for NCAA’s nor an individual 50 freestyler. During her senior year at Northgate High in California, Delay also dropped a 50.48 second 100 free, and a 1:48.37 second 200 yard free.
Lindsay Vrooman, who is the top-ranked recruit out of Pennsylvania, dominated the two longest freestyle distances at the PIAA High School state meet. In 2010, she went 1:47.67 and 4:43.93, respectively. She also has a 16:31 mile. Once the Indiana coaching staff and a season of training with the experienced and impressive Nikki White make their marks on her, she should definitely score in the 500 free, and has a shot in the other two distances. And although her best events are the longer distances, she is no slouch in the sprints, with a 23.90 and 52.10 bests in the 50 and 100, despite swimming them well off of her taper last December.
The third part of this triad that will surely barnstorm the Big Ten during their careers at Indiana is Stephanie Armstrong from Waukesha, Wisconsin. Armstrong has a ton of records on her resume, including Wisconsin state records in both the 200 medley and 200 free relays, and a former 15-18 NAG record in the 200 free relay. She also holds school record in the 50, 100, and 200 individual freestyles. Armstrong is just a swimmer who knows how to win races, and hopes to bring her record-setting ways to Bloomington. She goes 23.44/50.73 in the sprint freestyles, in textile. The 50.73 was swum in December, leaving hope that she has a lot of time to drop there. As a seemingly explosive relay swimmer and a 50/100 free specialist, she is exactly what Indiana needs to bring some balance to its NCAA lineup.
Add to them Cristina Gonzalez, an Indiana native who has won multiple Sectional Championships in the 100 free, and her 23.78/51.41 sprint free times, and this will be a very good class over 4 years.
These 4 swimmers, who are all sub-24 in the 50 free, will team up with Margaux Farrell—the only Hoosier under a 23 flat-start last season— and Taylor Wohrley—the only other Hoosier under a 24 flat-start last season–to make Indiana a scorer again in the 200 free relay.
Neighbors From the North – But this class is not all freestylers. Brenna MacLean is a big piece of the future of the rapidly improving Canadian National program. She is the 15-17 record holder in the short course 200 fly (2:09.09 which converts to 1:55.6 in yards), and can be expected to immediately compete for a scoring spot at NCAA’s individually, as well as battle for medley relay spots. Her Canadian coaches hail her as one of Canada’s best young butterfliers, and see big things for her future.
A map of Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, in the far deep north of Canada
Indiana also reached into Canada (deep into Canada) to grab what is, to me, their most interesting freshman prospect in Brownwyn Pasloski. Pasloski hails from Whitehorse, deep in the Canadian Yukon, which isn’t usually at the top of most coach’s list of recruiting destinations. Her Whitehorse Glacier Bears Swim Club, however, has developed some incredible swimmers, including 2011 sprinter Alexandra Gabor, who will be a top-30 recruit next season. But this season Pasloski is the big score out of the Yukon, with a 1:00.7 (converted) 100 breaststroke.
Despite having times which would have competed for an NCAA A-final spot last season, Gabor hasn’t gotten a ton of play in the recruiting news. This probably has a lot to do with where she comes from and her relative narrow event list—the 100 breaststroke is by far her best event—she clearly has the potential to develop other events once she gets into the Hoosier program. She has a (converted) 52.1 100 freestyle and a (converted) 1:59 200 IM as well, so she even has the potential to contribute there, depending on her progression.
These two Canadians do for the medley relays what the first four recruits we talked about do for the free relays. The Hoosiers’ top returning butterflier, redshirt senior Brittany Barwegen, had a seasons-best of 54.68. The Hoosiers’ top returning breaststroker, sophomore Ashley Specht, had a season-best of 1:02.34. This means that, even with the graduation of NCAA runner-up Fesenko, Maclean and Pasloski could improve the 400 medley relay by as many as 3 seconds the instant they step on campus.
Replacing a Champion – For the last 4 years, Indiana has not had to worry one bit about their backstroking. Between Donna Smailis and Kate Fesenko, Indiana had one of the top-3 backstroking duos in the nation. Both of those women graduated after last season, but sophomore Taylor Wohrley is waiting to step in and take over the throne. As a freshman last year, Wohrley was 22nd in the 200 back (53.21 season-best), and 18th in the 200 back (1:55.25 season-best), and proved that she is ready to step out of Fesenko’s shadow and into the spotlight. Wohrley capped off her meteoric rise with a USA Junior Nationals Championship in the 100 back. Even with the graduation of the best backstroker in program history, Indiana will not lose much ground in that stroke this season.
Diving Back on the Map – Historically, Indiana’s diving program—led by 9-time U.S. National Coach of the Year Jeff Huber—has been one of the premiere programs in the nation. Last year was a bit of a down year for this group, with only 15 NCAA points scored–with 14 of them coming by a 5th place finish from graduated platform specialist Amy Korthauer. Junior Gabriella Agostino, who placed 16th on the 1-meter, will be back and looking to move up this year.
But Dr. Huber seems to have scored a recruit this season that will turn things around for this group. Laura Ryan—who Minnesota and their top-notch diving program inexplicably let slip out of state—is one of the nation’s top diving prospects, and has the versatility to contend for NCAA titles on all 3 boards. She earned bronze at the 2009 Junior Pan-Ams, She is a 6-time Senior Nationals finalist, including a 7th on the 3-meter in August. She won a silver on platform at the 2009 Junior Nationals, and was 4th in 2010, bringing a lot of experience in a discipline that not all high school swimmers have a lot of exposure to. This summer, she teamed with Indiana sophomore Amy Cozad to win the USA-Diving National Title in the synchronized platform event.
She is an incredible athlete who holds 8 school records in—get this—diving, swimming and track. Huber hailed her as the country’s greatest high school athlete, and she is a multiple-time Minnesota Academic All-State award winner. Simply, put, NCAA recruits don’t get much better than Laura Ryan, and she can only expect to improve at Indiana.
Swander’s Swan Song – Not to be underestimated is the departure of top assistant Pam Swander, who was at Indiana for 5 seasons. She left to work with the famed SwimMac program in Charlotte. She was a big part of this program, and left in September, which cuts it very close to the beginning of the college season.
2011 Prognosis – Indiana is a tough nut to crack this season. They lose two of their three best swimmers and best diver, but replace them with a freshman crop that will give the Hoosiers big time depth that they have been missing. Within 2-3 years, these freshmen will push Indiana towards the top-tier, but I think they’re too young this season. I expect that this year they will be right at the same number 10 position (for the 4th straight season), with an incredibly bright horizon.
