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Looking to make the roughly half-day-long flight from São Bernardo, Brazil, to the campus of the University of Kentucky next fall (2026) is Mariana Moraes Caldeira, a strong freestyler and breaststroker. Posting on her Instagram, Caldeira, whose hometown is just outside of Sao Paolo said,
I’m beyond excited to announce my verbal commitment to continue my athletic and academic career at the University of Kentucky! A huge thanks to my family, friends, and teammates for all the support. A special thank you to my Coach @douglasg.goncalves and everyone from SESI for helping me become who I am today, and to Coach Cauli, Coach Bret and all UK Swim and Dive staff for this amazing opportunity.
GO CATS! 🐾💙🤍
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Caldeira holds best times in the 200 SCM and 400 SCM from this past June, where at the SP Open Winter Swim, held at the Esporte Clube Pinheiros in Sao Paulo, she went 1:59.93 and 4:13.26 respectively. Her 200 time finished 2nd overall, and was just one of two times under the 2:00 minute mark, joining Manuela Sega‘s 1:58.52. Like in the 200 where she dropped over two seconds from her entry time, Caldeira’s 400 result was just as impressive as she again finished runner-up dropping over two seconds off her seed time of 4:15.48. Her result of 4:13.26, a new PB as just .08 off the 4:13.18 put up by Manuela Correa.
The Servico Social da Industria Sp Sesi-Sp based swimmer earned another silver medal finish in the 50 breast, claiming second with another personal best going 31.76. She did not finish on the podium in the 100 breast, placing 7th overall with a time of 1:10.02, but has broken the 1:10 barrier before, as she finished 18th overall last winter at the SP Summer Swimming Open, going 1:09.62.
More recently, Caldeira competed at the Jose Finkel meet earlier this month. While she was off her Long Course PBs in the 200 free and 50/100 breast, she did make the finals in each of them. IN the 200, she finished 15th overall with a result of 2:08.78, behind champion Maria Costa and her 1:58.17. Caldeira fared better in the breaststroke events, finishing 13th in the 100 (1:15.23) and breaking into the A-final with her 8th place finishing time of 33.01. She holds PBs of 2:06.93 in the 200 free and 32.65 and 1:12.55 in the sprint breaststrokes.
Best SCY Times (Converted from SCM/LCM):
- 100 Free – 50.88/50.95 (56.48/58.16)
- 200 Free – 1:48.04/1:51.46 (1:59.93/2:06.93)
- 400 Free – 4:49.43/5:03.38 (4:13.26/4:30.77)
- 50 Breast – 28.61/28.51 (31.76/32.65)
- 100 Breast – 1:02.72/1:03.55 (1:09.62/1:12.55)
Next fall Caldeira will be joining a Kentucky program led by Bret Lundgaard, who is in the midst of his third season as the head coach of the Wildcats. Last year the team finished 11th at SECs, scoring 345 points, 53 shy of 10th place Mizzou. Leading the way with 39 individual points was fifth year Bridget Engel. Engel finished 11th in the 100 breast with her time of 59.11 and earned an A-final berth in the 200, where she finished 7th overall with her 2:08.76.
The Brazilian’s converted PBs currently are outside of scoring range at SECs, but she still has one year to improve those times and she is not far off in many of them. In the 100 free 24th place in prelims at the 2025 meet was Lexie Mulvihill and Emily Armen‘s 48.82 while in the 200 Rachel Stege‘s 1:46.68 was the last to earn a berth in finals. In the 500, Kentucky’s Samantha Hamilton snuck into the C-final with her 4:44.88, while the 100 breaststroke’s last qualifying time was a 1:01.00.
Joining Caldeira in Lexington next fall are a strong bevy of swimmers. Gianna Kenrick is SwimSwam’s #4 ranked diving commit, while BOTR Quinn Schureck brings strong breaststroke times of 1:01.28 and 2:14.83, in the 100 and 200 respectively. Joining them are Allie Joyce, Karrington Hansen and Gabrielle Idle-Beavers. Idle-Beavers, like Caldeira, will be making a long flight to her new home, albeit from Great Britain.
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Kentucky is going ham with the international students over the past year!
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