Duke Earns a Pair of Verbals: Halle Morris and Connie Dean

Photo courtesy of Connie Dean on Instagram

It has been a good recruiting week for the Blue Devils, who saw their class of 2021 increase by two verbal commitments. Both Halle Morris of San Rafael, California and Connie Dean of Taplow, England announced their intentions to matriculate at Duke University in the fall of 2017.

Connie Dean

Beyond excited to be joining the Duke swimming and diving team. Can’t wait to be a blue devil!@swimswamnews @duke_swim_dive#goduke

Dean is an IMer who trains with and swims for Maidenhead Marlins in England. She finished sixth in the women’s open 400m IM at the 2016 British Nationals and Olympic Trials last April, touching in 4:47.49. She also placed 6th in the women’s open 200m IM (2:15.64), 7th in the Target Tokyo 2020 200m breast (2:34.02), and 30th in heats of the 100m breast (1:12.23).

Best times:

• 400 LCM IM – 4:45
• 200 LCM IM – 2:15

Halle Morris

“I’m excited to announce that I have verbally committed to swim at Duke University.  I can’t wait to be a Blue Devil.  #goduke”

Morris is a senior at Terra Linda High School. She is an Olympic Trials qualifier in the 100/200 breaststrokes, and finished fourth in the 100m breast (1:10.29) and fifth in the 200 breast (2:34.09) at 2016 Speedo Juniors. In high school season she won the 100 breast at the California State Meet, going 1:01.30.

Her top times are:

Morris and Dean will contribute right away to Duke’s standing at the conference level. They both would have scored (A final and B final, respectively) in the 100 breast 2016 ACC Championships. Morris would also have made the B final in the 200 breast while Dean would have been a B finalist in the 200/400 IMs.

If you have a commitment to report, please send an email to [email protected]