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Hollie Widdows has announced her verbal commitment to further her education and swimming career at Notre Dame, beginning with the fall of 2024. Widdows is from the United Kingdom, and currently attends the Mount Kelly School in Devon. She trains and competes year round with coach Emma Collings-Barnes and Greg King-Limb.
She shared with SwimSwam why she picked Notre Dame: “I am really looking forward to joining Notre Dame. I feel they have the perfect balance of strong academics and an exciting swimming programme. I can’t wait to see what I can achieve there!”
Last summer, Widdows represented England at the European Junior Championships in Romania. She advanced to the semifinals in the 50m fly and 100m fly, earning 9th in both with times of 27.18 and 1:00.74, respectively. Additionally, she swam in the semifinals of the 200m freestyle, where she placed 11th in 2:03.15. She also picked up two bronze medals as a member of Britain’s 4×200 freestyle relay and mixed 4×100 medley relay.
Widdows is a current member of the Swim England Junior Team and became the British Junior Champion in the 50m fly in 2022.
Top LCM Times:
- 50 free – 26.14
- 100 free – 56.50
- 200 free – 2:02.22
- 50 fly – 26.29
- 100 fly – 1:00.63
- 200 IM – 2:19.76
Under first-year head coach Chris Lindauer, The Fighting Irish finished 8th out of 12 teams at the 2023 ACC Championships in February. Seniors Colleen Gillilan and Ellie Jew also went on to race at the 2023 NCAA Division I Championships in March.
Leading this year’s 100 fly group was Gillilan, who posted a season best time of 51.73 at the Tim Welsh Classic. Her younger sister, Renee Gillilan, held the 2nd-fastest time of the year with a 52.55 done at the ACC Championships. R. Gillilan will be a junior this fall, meaning she will overlap with Widdows for a year.
Joining Widdows in Notre Dame’s class of 2028 is Carli Cronk, Emily Kitayama, and Alyssa Street. Cronk and Street are distance freestyle specialists, while Kitayama swims shorter freestyle events and butterfly.
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Hollie Widdows soars
British champion finds her home
Notre Dame’s embrace
Most if not all of the top juniors that went to the us to swim on top of school never improved to a great degree
Evidence? For every Jemma Lowe there is a Lewis Burras, Anna Hopkin, Gemma Spofforth, etc. all of whom improved substantially whilst swimming in the NCAA.