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High school senior Ella Jean Stack has verbally committed to swim at NCAA D2 power Colorado Mesa University.
A two-sport high school athlete, Stack has chosen to focus on swimming in college. She was also a three-year member of her high school’s soccer team, being named second team all-conference in 2023 as a junior.
I’m SO blessed, proud, and excited to announce my verbal commitment to swim and study at Colorado Mesa University!! I can’t thank God, my family, friends, teammates and coaches enough for helping me get to this point. So much overflowing gratitude for all of their constant support and love. I’m over the moon excited to join this incredible team and represent this awesome university! Thank you a million to the CMU coaching staff for this amazing opportunity and I cannot wait to be a Mav!
Stack is the two-time defending Montana High School State Champion in the 200 yard free and also has two straight third-place finishes in the 100 free. The MHSA championship meet is in early February, so she has one more chance to earn a 200 free threepeat.
Last season, she helped lead her team to a 7th-place finish at that meet.
Stack hasn’t raced since last February’s Montana High School State Championship.
While Stack represents the Missoula Aquatic Club and has had success at the club level in past years, she has no official results in the SWIMS database since the Montana State Championship meet in February.
Best Times in Yards:
- 50 free – 24.82
- 100 free – 52.98
- 200 free – 1:54.70
- 100 back – 59.19
- 200 back – 2:07.77
Stack has gravitated more toward the short freestyles in high school, though she has shown some promise in the backstroke races as well.
The program’s top swimmer is Agata Naskret, who is likewise a good backstroker and sprint freestyler, having set the NCAA D2 record in the 100 back earlier this season. They’ve also had luck in developing other swimmers in this category – for example, Elli Williams had a best 50 free of 24.44 coming out of high school in Oregon but went 23.01 for 6th place at last year’s NCAA Division II Championship.
That kind of development will be big for Stack as she moves into a full-time focus on swimming.
Colorado Mesa has another swimmer from Missoula already on their roster: junior Jackson Moe; among other Montanans in this pipeline, Georgia Hatzenbeller from Great Falls is also committed to Colorado Mesa for next fall – she’s the defending state champion in the 100 fly (57.23) and 100 breast (1:04.62).
They join a Mavericks class of 2025 that also includes Abby Uhl from Illinois and Eva Lehmkuhler from Colorado. Uhl and Lemkuhler are both also freestylers, with Lehmkuhler specializing in the distance events and Uhl being more of a 200-and-under swimmer like Stack. With three juniors on the team’s top-of-the-line 200 free relay this season, this class will have a year to grow before they will be counted on for big relay contributions.
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