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Athena Clayson of Mount Kelly Swimming in Tavistock, Devon, Great Britain has announced her intention to attend college in the United States and swim for the Fresno State Bulldogs starting in the fall of 2019. Using the SwimSwam Swim Time Converter, since all of her best times are either in short course meters or long course meters, Clayson is looking like she will be able to score points for the Bulldogs in her inaugural Mountain West Conference swim meet. Her converted times in the 200 free and 100 back rank her in the top 16 (15th and 13th respectively), while her 100 free time would have landed her a 2nd place finish at the 2019 MWC Championships, just .1 seconds off of an NCAA B cut.
‘I’m so excited to join the Fresno State family 2019! Incredible thankful for this opportunity & I couldn’t have been in this position without my coaches, friends & family. #godogs’
Congrats to Athena Clayson for signing with Fresno State to swim next season, all the way from the UK! @FresnoStateSwim @ncsa #GoDogs #ncsacommit🏊♀️ pic.twitter.com/nNUH5FrNnv
— Jeff Smith (@ncsa_coachjeff) November 29, 2018
At the CIG Challenge International de Geneve Clayson swam to top 16 finishes in the 100 LCM Free, 50 and 100 LCM backstrokes, and the 50 LCM butterfly. While her career-best times in her strongest races are all from 2017, she still managed to take 12th in the 50 butterfly (28.47 LCM), 7th in the 100 free (57.97 LCM) and 50 backstroke (30.1 LCM), and 2nd place in the 100 backstroke (1:04.3 LCM).
Best times in LCM and SCM converted to SCY
| Event | Time in SCM | Time in LCM | Best time converted to SCY |
| 50 free | 26.47 | 26.71 | 23.34 |
| 100 free | 55.7 | 57.13 | 49.61 |
| 200 free | 2:03.11 | 2:04.14 | 1:48.95 |
| 100 back | 1:00.67 | 1:03.02 | 54.65 |
| 200 back | 2:14.22 | 2:18.89 | 2:00.91 |
If she can hit her career-best times and the conversions hold up, Clayson will make an immediate impact for the Bulldogs. Just looking at the 2019 Mountain West Conference Championship meet, putting her on the 800 free relay in place of the slowest split would move that relay from 7th to 4th, and she also has faster times in the 100 back and the 100 free than either leg on their 400 medley relay and was faster than every single member of the 400 free relay. She also would have the 2nd fastest times on the team in the 50 free and 100 back, but the times faster than her are both seniors. She will join Annie Bartolome, Tyler Bedley, Madi Deruyter, Maya Gulvady, Marissa Johnson, Samantha Keith, and Megan Ridenour as members of Fresno State’s Class of 2023.
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