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Celia Ripple, of Ozaukee Aquatics just outside of Milwaukee, has committed to Middlebury College. Ripple is a big time recruit for the Division 3 school, as her current personal best in the 100 breaststroke would have been fast enough to make the A-Final at last year’s NCAA Championship:
- 50 breaststroke: 29.03
- 100 breaststroke: 1:03.10
- 200 breaststroke: 2:18.14
- 200 IM: 2:09.64
Notably, the 50’s of stroke are contested at the NESCAC Championship, so Ripple could bypass the IM altogether and race only breaststroke at the conference level. Ripple was a C-Finalist in both the 50 breaststroke and 100 breaststroke at last spring’s NCSA Junior National meet in Orlando. She attends and swims for Wauwatosa East High School, where she came into last year’s state championship as one of the top seeds in both the 100 breaststroke and 200 IM but came up short.
Middlebury graduated NCAA A-Finalist in the 100 breaststroke Jamie Hillas last spring, and Ripple is also just .03 slower than Hillas’ school record in that event, and only slightly farther away in the 50 breaststroke. The Panthers have been a consistent presence at the NCAA Championships, where they finished 18th last year. Despite their rural location in Vermont and small student body (2500 students), Middlebury boasts Vermont’s only 50m pool and the best facility in the NESCAC conference.
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