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Mary-Ambre Moluh, a 2023 World Championships semi-finalist in the women’s 50 back, announced her verbal commitment to the University of California-Berkley.
Moluh, who represents France internationally, is not the first from her country to verbal to Cal, as French national runner-up Lilou Ressencourt announced her commitment to Berkley last week. Both swimmers will arrive at Cal in the fall of 2024, right after the 2024 Olympic games happening in their home nation.
I’m so excited to announce my verbal commitment to swim and study at the university of California, Berkeley.
I’d like to thank my family, friends and coach for supporting me in every decision, as well as the CAL coaches, and everyone I got to meet throughout this process 🫶🏽
Can’t wait for this new adventure !!
GO BEARS!! 🐻💙💛
@calwswim
At the 2023 World Championships, Moluh finished 10th in the 50 back with a time of 27.82. She also led off France’s 400 free prelims relay that finished 10th.
Moluh has very strong backstroke times in both long course and short course. Her best short course meters 100 back time converted to yards would have been just 0.08 off scoring at NCAAs last season, while her 50 back time is just 0.15 off what Stadden went to lead off Cal’s 200 medley relay at NCAAs.
Expect Moluh to be a big contributor in freestyle as well. After posting breakout long course 50 and 100 freestyle swims this spring, Moluh is due for a short course drop in the events—right now, her short course 50 and 100 free bests are both slower than her long course bests, and her yards conversions in those events likely aren’t an accurate representation of her actual abilities.
Best Times (LCM):
- 50 free: 25.19
- 100 free: 54.48
- 200 free: 2:01.76
- 50 back: 27.63
- 100 back: 59.67
- 100 fly: 1:01.34
Best Times (SCM):
- 50 free: 25.72 (from 2019)
- 100 free: 54.90
- 50 back: 26.33
- 100 back: 57.36
- 100 fly: 1:00.92
Best Times (SCM converted to SCY):
- 50 free: 23.17
- 100 free: 49.45
- 50 back: 23.72
- 100 back: 51.67
- 100 fly: 54.88
Moluh’s arrival at Cal could coincide perfectly with the departure of Isabelle Stadden, the team’s best backstroker currently. If Stadden opts not to take her fifth year of eligibility, the 2023-24 NCAA season would be her final NCAA season.
The Cal women, in their second season under longtime men’s head coach Dave Durden and assistant head David Marsh, have already gotten some big-time recruits. Two weeks ago, Alex Shackell and Claire Weinstein, the #1 and #3 recruits in the high school class of 2025, announced their verbal commitment to Cal. Now, Moluh will add to the starpower.
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The genius recruiter/coach Marsh has helped yet another great swimmer find her way to a program headed for greatness! The Cal women will be top 3 soon!
Do us all a favor and stop putting conversions on international commitment articles. Never once looked at them and thought, yeah that looks right.
I mean, how else would you want me to possibly project how fast she could be in yards? Conversions (especially SCM to SCY) are a concrete way of doing that without “would coulda shoulda” speculation.
The paragraph before I listed out her times basically states where the conversions could be inaccurate, and that it should be kept in mind when looking at them. Conversions are meant to be used as one of many numerical references, and not something that is supposed to be seen as spot-on all the time.
(In fact, we usually *do* warn readers that conversions are not accurate when we put them in our articles, and people still get mad.)
I think it’s ok to just say here are their best times in LC and short course. If they’re a true top tier recruit like Moluh you could say her best time in the 100 back would be second fastest among 2024 domestic recruits behind only Leah Shackley.
Anyone who finished 10th at worlds is obviously a huge pickup, and I don’t think people who click on a swimming recruiting article are lost without conversions.
Just like when Swimswammers expected Brendan Hansen to go LCM 200 br 2:04 after his 1:50 SCY
Or Kate Douglas to go LCM 200 IM 2:05 after her 1:48 SCY
Or Kate Douglas to go LCM 200 br 2:18 after her 2:01 SCY
Etc
Etc
Mark my word: will happen again next year lmfao
Agreed Swimswam’s conversions are usually way off.
At the time of my posting the oldest comment is 16 hours old and not a peep from everyone’s favorite Cal hater. Is he ok?
Congrats!
Marsh was always prolific at recruiting internationals to Auburn years ago & has a much easier academic, geographic sell to make now at Cal. He’s rollin’ & the Lady Bears are loading up + getting deeper & better in all the events.
America is probably the only country in the world that train athletes from other countries who end up competing against it.
Curious to know if foreign athletes obtain their own funding to go to US colleges.
I can think of a few athletes who went to train at a University in I think England..? Paige Madden and Felix Auboeck are the first two to come to mind. I’m sure someone can go into more detail about this.
However, I agree. It’s far more common here in the states, but you have to remember the NCAA is completely separate from USA Swimming. It’s not as if these top international athletes are being invited to training camps and etcetera.
Didn’t one of the Deloof sisters train with Paige at Loughborough
Doesn’t bother me a bit. I’d like everyone, no matter where they are born, to have the chance to maximize their swimming ability. I love seeing the progress Marchand has made, and if that has been assisted Bowman or ASU, great.
Iron sharpens iron.
That’s not even remotely true.
For swimming or for other sports. See: entire Winter Olympics sports training systems
i assume she can cut off like about a second and a half from her converted SCM time just based off the fact that her LCM pb time is nearly half a second faster than her SCM pb
She swam 23.9 and 52.7 (relay start) at the SCM WC in Melbourne.
That would covert to about 21.9 yards. 25.1lcm also converts to about 21.9. That’s NCAA invite range
Welcome and Go Bears!
Do we know if she will have a full four-year eligibility or if she’ll also already be on a college diploma and will have reduced eligibility?
(okay now everyone else but Yanyan look away) Pssst… Yanyan, you spelled Berkeley wrong and it’s a comma between California and Berkeley (not hyphenated). I know the tired late-night writing and honestly, the “Cal Berkeley” people aren’t making it any easier by changing up the recommendations suddenly, but just wanted to pass the message along. Thanks for all you do though!