Breaststroker Lauren Stoeckle will make her debut for the Arizona Wildcats on Friday afternoon as they take on the Stanford Cardinal at 2PM Pacific Time, sources tell SwimSwam this week. This will be a rare, but not unprecedented, season that will see Stoeckle compete for two different teams in the same season – something Arizona has done at least once before.
In high school, Stoeckle was on a high school team with Missy Franklin, and was also a member of the MACS club team with current Arizona All-American Bonnie Brandon.
Stoeckle, who does not appear on the official Arizona roster, is a transfer from the University of Missouri, where she spent two-and-a-half seasons. At the end of her freshman year, she swam a 1:01.17 best time in the 100 breaststroke, and mid-season of her sophomore year she swam a 2:12.15 in the 200 yard breaststroke.
Already during her junior season, she has swum a 2:13.93 for Missouri in the 200 breaststroke and a 1:01.38 in the 100 breaststroke.
She joins an already-deep Arizona breaststroke group that includes sophomore Sara Borendame and junior Emma Schoettmer. Stoeckle, if she’s able to swim lifetime bests, could place in the A-Final of both races at this year’s Pac-12 Championship meet.
Stoeckle had a very good summer season, where she swam long course lifetime bests in both the 100 breaststroke (1:11.84) and 200 breaststroke (2:35.11) at Summer Nationals. Those were both lifetime bests of more-than-a-second.
Stoeckle improved in each of her two full seasons at Missouri after plateauing toward the end of her prep career. Her time progression from high school through her freshman and sophomore seasons:
100 breast
- HS Best – 1:03.99 (sophomore)
- Fr. at Mizzou – 1:01.17
- Soph. at Mizzou – 1:01.22
- Jr. Best so far – 1:01.38
200 breast
- HS Best – 2:16.29 (freshman)
- Fr. at Mizzou – 2:15.26
- Soph. at Mizzou – 2:12.15
- Jr. Best so far – 2:13.93
The Pac-12 is relatively weak, overall, in the women’s breaststrokes, so Arizona having three swimmers capable of scoring A-Final points should prove as a big lift there in the team battle.
Someone please explain to me how this can happen. Whatever happened to being required to sit out a year when you transfer? This just seems wrong to me.
CT Swim Fan – the “sit out a year” rules are probably what you’re conditioned to from major sports, but there’s a one-time transfer exception in all sports except football, basketball, and men’s ice hockey. So long as your old school “releases” you (which they almost always do in swimming), you’re eligible immediately.
There’s some intra-conference exceptions to this rule, but that’s how the rule works between schools in different conferences.