Big Ten Champion Cora Dupre has announced that she will transfer to the University of Alabama for the 2020-2021 season. Dupre entered the portal late last month after one season at Indiana.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CBMOvKLDg2c/
At Alabama, Dupre will be united with Crimson Tide second-year head coach Coley Stickels, who was the sprint coach at Indiana at the time Dupre committed there. Dupre trained primarily under Jonty Skinner as a freshman, though Skinner retired before the end of the season.
Dupre scored 58 points individually at the 2020 Big Ten Women’s Swimming & Diving Championships, placing 4th in the 50 free and 1st in the 200 free. She was disqualified for a false start in her 3rd event, the 100 free, in prelims. Those 58 points, even in just 2 individual events, made her Indiana’s 5th-best scoring swimmer at the meet.
Dupre was to enter the 2020 NCAA Championships as the 8th seed in the 200 free, the 12th seed in the 100 free, and the 16th seed in the 50 free prior to the cancellation of that meet.
She leaves Indiana with the 3 fastest 50 frees in program history and the 3 fastest 100 frees in program history.
Best Times in Yards:
| PRIOR TO INDIANA | AT INDIANA | |
| 50 free | 22.46 | 21.9 |
| 100 free | 48.96 | 47.84 |
| 200 free | 1:45.27 | 1:43.61 |
| 100 fly | 54.08 | 52.9 |
| 100 back | 54.68 | 52.47 |
| 200 IM | 1:59.76 | 1:57.33 |
She also swam the leadoff backstroke leg on Indiana’s 400 medley relay and the butterfly on Indiana’s 200 medley relay (which was disqualified).
Dupre, who originally committed to Texas before swapping her verbal commitment to Indiana, committed to the Hoosiers when their sprint group was led by Coley Stickels. Prior to her freshman season, Stickels left to become the head coach at the University of Alabama. At least two members of the Indiana women’s team, Julia Wolf and Morgan Scott, followed him to Tuscaloosa.
The Alabama women finished 7th at the 2020 SEC Championship meet with 748 points. The team is scheduled to return 421 individual points from last year’s team, which is 86% – the vast majority of which is in the rising junior class. The Crimson Tide already showed strength last season in the sprint freestyle events, which are the races that Stickels is known for as a coach, with a 5th-place finish int he 200 free relay and 3rd-place finish in the 400 free relay. Both of those relays included the two Indiana transfers Scott and Wolf). In fact, next season, including Dupre, 3 out of 4 members of the Alabama sprint free relays could be Indiana transfers.
Dupre is originally from the Cincinnati area, having trained in high school with the Mason Manta Rays.
Great solid relationship between Looze and Stickels. 🤪
Outstanding! Great choice Cora! This is fantastic for Bama! At last year’s SEC meet, Cora’s times would have A finaled in 3 events, and earned 6th in the 50 free, 6th in the 100 free, and 5th in the 200 free, for a total of 73 individual points. I know this isn’t truly ‘returning points’, but if we consider these as such for predicting next year’s SEC championship, and also considering, potentially, Cora’s impact on relays, perhaps next year will be a 5-way battle for the team title, including Bama as a contender.👍
https://swimswam.com/returning-conference-points-wide-open-womens-sec-is-near-four-way-tie/
While I think Coley did a great job his first year, I bet some of the transfers are calculating that Bama is likely to be open for athletics in full the entire academic year (driven by their football team and politics of the state), whereas Indiana is still swimming in ponds and is going to be freaked out about winter and COVID-19.
I don’t think this has a lot to do with the transfers.
She achieved some pretty impressive time drops during her first season at Indiana. It’ll be interesting to see if her times go up, down, or stay the same this coming winter.
Jonty had a lot to do with the big drops, along with her hard work. If he was still here, fewer would be leaving. The kids loved him.
Oh how the tides have turned…
https://swimswam.com/19-6-44-3-sprinter-jack-blake-retires-from-swimming-will-stay-at-alabama/
Commitment
WOW! This could really put a dent in the predictions for SEC TEAM TITLE of 2021. With all the transfers, recruits and possible mid-year foreign super-stars I might pick the Lady Tide to win it all. Coach Stickles is obviously the best recruiter and after year one just may be the best on deck coach and meet strategist. Exciting to see.
I’d guess 2022 would be more likely for them to win it all given that they still aren’t even losing tons of points after next season. Still a great chance to move into the top 3 in 2021!
The whole “Lady” thing is so archaic. Ima going with the Gentlemen Gators to win the SECs for men.
Wow great pick up for Alabama. Congratulations to Coach Stickles. Glad to see the SEC getting stronger.