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Claire Cox has announced her decision to remain in-state at the University of Akron next fall. The Marlington High School senior will be moving just down the road, as she currently trains year-round with Firestone Akron Swim Team, located in Akron, Ohio. With the addition of Cox and her club teammate Carrie Caniglia, the Zips will have five Ohio natives on their roster next fall, with three of them being from the Akron area.
“I chose the University of Akron because of the team atmosphere. The team was very welcoming on my visits and the coaching staff is amazing. I am beyond excited to be apart of this team for the next four years!”
Cox is primarily a breaststroker, but also regularly swims sprint freestyle and IM. She owns a Winter Juniors cut in the 100 breast, and is just 0.01 off of a Futures qualifying time in the 100 freestyle. Already this short course season, she has dropped over two seconds in the 200 IM and a few tenths in the 100 breast.
Top SCY Times:
- 50 free – 24.51
- 100 free – 52.10
- 200 free – 1:57.27
- 100 breast – 1:03.10
- 200 breast – 2:24.82
- 200 IM – 2:08.06
This summer, Cox set a slew of personal best times at the Cleveland Speedo Sectionals meet. She dropped nearly 8 seconds in the 200m breast, clocking a 2:47.97 for a 29th place finish overall. She also took over a second off her 100m breast to record a best time of 1:16.64 to finish 21st. Her highest finish in the meet was in the 50m breast, where she clocked a 34.45 for 12th.
Akron is a Division I mid-major program that competes in the Mid-American Conference. Last season they picked up their 8th conference win in 9 seasons, winning with a record-breaking 896.5 points. Three of their swimmers also qualified for the 2022 NCAA Division I Championships, which tied them with Penn for sending the highest number of athletes from a mid-major program. Under head coach Brian Peresie, Akron has built a history of consistently sending women to NCAAs. Since 2016, they have qualified 27 individual athletes for the meet.
It took a 1:03.02 last season at conference to qualify for the A-final in the 100 breast, meaning Cox currently sits just outside top-8 range. Her best 100 free time is also close to C-final range, as it took a 51.75 to advance last year.
Akron’s 100 breaststroke group is led this year by graduate student Andrea Fischer and junior Madeline Dyer, who have been as fast as 1:01.24 and 1:01.37 this year, respectively. Dyer, who is from the same club team as Cox, will overlap with her for a year.
Cox is joined by club teammate Caniglia, Joelle Vogelmann, and Mia Latimer in the Zips’ class of 2027. Caniglia swims primarily IM and sprint free, while Latimer is a pure spring freestyler. Vogelmann, an international athlete from Germany, is a breaststroker, with best LCM times of 1:11.81 and 2:33.01 in the 100m and 200m breast.
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