A lot of attention has been on Indiana and Minnesota within the Big Ten verbal commitment race. By no means count the team out of Columbus out. Bill Dorenkott and Liz Hinkleman are a dynamic recruiting team; they already have eight verbal commitments thus far, with the recent eighth being the best yet for their class.
Zara Bailey, from over the pond in England, will call herself a Buckeye next fall. Her father is from Jamaica, and Bailey represents Jamaica internationally; she competed at the FINA World Championships in Barcelona this past summer.
While she has no short course times yet, she has been 2:17/4:53 200 & 400 IM, plus 1:11/2:39 in the 100 & 200 breaststrokes. The Buckeyes were in need of primarily IM’er, with the graduations of Kelly Ann Baird, Mary Sarah Cruzan, Kristyn Fulcher and Alex Norris this year, who are for the most part 2nd or 3rd event IM’ers.
Her breaststroke will slide right into a solid breaststroke training group of all freshmen: Amy Bopp, Catherine Cui, Maren Reeder and Taylor Vargo.
She won the Sporting Achievement Award at the 2013 Peterborough Telegraph Education Awards for her excellence in the pool, in the classroom and within the community.
With junior Aliena Schmidtke surging into her groove this year, looking to step up for the Buckeyes in the sprint events. And semester freshman Zulal Zeren will join on from Istanbul, Turkey adding depth to their backstroke. Dorenkott will have three very strong international swimmers on the roster next year with Bailey.
Other Buckeye verbal commitments include: Amanda McNulty (SC), Alex Wittman (FL), Molly Washko (OH), Elizabeth Auckley (OH), Macie McNichols (OH), Kathleen Cook (GA), Cheyenne Meek (OH)
