UVA Women Jump Into ’22 Recruiting with Verbal Commitment from #4 Claire Tuggle

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Originally published August 17th 2020

Claire Tuggle from Mariposa, California, the #4 recruit on our Way Too Early list of girls from the high school class of 2022, has announced her verbal commitment to the University of Virginia’s class of 2026.

“I’m so excited to announce my verbal commitment to the University of Virginia. It is such a blessing to be able to continue my academic and athletic career at a collegiate level. I want to thank all the friends, family and coaches that helped me reach this point. GO HOOS💙🧡⚔️”

Tuggle will be a junior at Clovis North High School this fall; she swims year-round with Santa Maria Swim Club. She shows incredible versatility in her long course events; she is an Olympic Trials qualifier in the 200/400/1500m free with times of 1:58.21/4:07.85/16:39.04 and a Summer Nationals qualifier in the 100m free (56.20), 800m free (8:37.27), 200m IM (2:15.02), and 400m IM (4:44.81).

In high school swimming, she won the 200 free (1:46.19) and 500 free (4:42.42) as a freshman at 2019 CIF Central Section Championships. A week later she won the 500 (4:41.60) and placed 2nd in the 200 (1:46.04) at the California State Meet. Her sophomore season was canceled this spring due to COVID.

Tuggle had a big long course season in 2019, competing first at Phillips 66 Nationals (6th in the 200 free, 4th in the 400 free, and 23rd in the 200 IM), then at Junior Nationals (1st in the 800 free, 20th in prelims of the 200 fly), and finally at FINA World Junior Championships in Budapest. There, she racked up points for Team USA with a gold medal on the 4×200 free relay (1:58.39 anchor). Individually, she placed 6th in the 200 free and 7th in the 400 free.

While her LCM performances have dwarfed her SCY swims to date, she is still the top 200/1000 freestyler in the class. That said, she also has the range eventually to be a relay threat for UVA on the one hand, and a NCAA scorer in the mile on the other.

Best Times:

  • 100 free – 49.43
  • 200 free – 1:44.96
  • 500 free – 4:41.36
  • 1000 free – 9:41.96
  • 1650 free – 17:41.17
  • 200 fly – 1:59.55
  • 400 IM – 4:16.91
  • 200 IM – 1:59.62

If you have a commitment to report, please send an email with a photo (landscape, or horizontal, looks best) and a quote to [email protected].

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Bobo Gigi
4 years ago

Interesting

coach
Reply to  Bobo Gigi
4 years ago

Bobo, we have missed you!

Billy
4 years ago

I did a little research. Claire Tuttle moved to Santa Maria in December 2019. The article said her father is with the Santa Maria Fire Service.

Foreign Embassy
4 years ago

Congrats to UVA. The “Berkeley of the East Coast” 🥂

Tate
Reply to  Foreign Embassy
4 years ago

Are you being sarcastic? Charlottesville is the complete opposite of Berkeley.

B1G Daddy
4 years ago

I honestly didn’t think anyone used the term “dwarfed” anymore. I think that was politically incorrect by 1987.

Billy
4 years ago

Santa Maria is about 170 miles from Fresno. Unless she moved to Santa Maria, the writer did not do her homework…. Doesn’t she swims for Clovis Swim Club?

James
Reply to  Billy
4 years ago

She seems to have moved around quite a bit in the past year or so. She did a short turn at DART (Davis, CA) before moving over to Santa Maria on the coast. This all happened since last high school season – but it seems like she is no longer in the Clovis area or at a Clovis school.

VA Steve
4 years ago

Great pickup! As a household of UVA graduates, we appreciate the well-worn sweatshirt, suggesting this was a decision contemplated for some time!

Swimerrrrrr
Reply to  VA Steve
4 years ago

Not necessarily. She could have bought it vintage

Taa
Reply to  Swimerrrrrr
4 years ago

I still have my school hoodie from the late 80s. It’s pretty dated at this point

millennial
4 years ago

Clovis to Santa Maria? That’s quite the commute!

Icanfreezetime
Reply to  millennial
4 years ago

Christopher Columbus would approve. Bon voyage to Claire! In a few years, she will discover the wonders of UVA.

2SwimFly
4 years ago

Wish swimmers would stay closer to their home, why come across the 50 states and take away a place from someone that is on the east coast. There is fantastic coaches on the west coast!!

VFL
Reply to  2SwimFly
4 years ago

Because being an elite athlete affords you the privilege of choosing any school without regard to geography?? Whose spot is she taking? Such a strange take…

Admin
Reply to  2SwimFly
4 years ago

Taking away a spot from a swimmer on the East Coast who isn’t as fast as her and doesn’t want to swim on the West Coast* is what you meant to say, right?

Claire was going to commit to a top 10 school no matter what happened. The number of spots available at top 10 type schools has not changed based on which one she chose.

NCSwimDad
Reply to  2SwimFly
4 years ago

I mean if Huske goes to Stanford (as rumored) it balances out.

About Anne Lepesant

Anne Lepesant

Anne Lepesant is the mother of four daughters, all of whom swam in college. With an undergraduate degree from Princeton (where she was an all-Ivy tennis player) and an MBA from INSEAD, she worked for many years in the financial industry, both in France and the U.S. Anne is currently …

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