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Amanda Ulicny of Raleigh, North Carolina, has committed to swim and study for Texas Christian University, beginning in the fall of 2023.
“HOWDY! I am happy to announce that I am headed to Texas next fall to continue my athletic and academic career at Texas Christian University!!! Thank you Dad, Mom and Matt for your unwavering support. To all my coaches including, Don, Meg, Paul, Harrison, Mike and Coach Silver for your guidance. And to my teammates for keeping it fun and pushing me at practice each day!! Finally, to the TCU coaches for this amazing opportunity. I can’t wait to start training with y’all next fall !! So excited to be a part of the TCU family!! Let’s Go Horned Frogs!! “
Ulicny is in her senior year at Millbrook High School and competes year-round for the Marlins of Raleigh. Ulicny has a versatile set of events, specializing in freestyle, butterfly, and IM. Ulicny had a great 2022 season, hitting best times in all of her primary events. At the North Carolina TAC Tarheel States meet in March, Ulicny swam bests in her 100-yard free (52.63), 100-yard fly (57.75), and 200-yard IM (2:07.51). She continued her streak in December at the North Carolina ATOM Winter Invite. Ulicny won the 400-yard IM in 4:26.22, was runner-up in the 500-yard freestyle in 4:53.61, and then placed 11th in the 50-yard free in finals with a time of 24.39.
Best Times SCY:
- 100 free — 52.63
- 200 free — 1:50.72
- 500 free — 4:53.61
- 100 fly — 57.75
- 200 fly — 2:04.89
- 200 IM — 2:07.51
- 400IM — 4:26.22
TCU competes as part of the Big 12 Conference, which despite being a Power 5 conference, only has three participating teams on the men’s side and only five for women. The TCU women’s team placed 3rd out of five at the 2022 Big 12 conference championships with the Texas women winning the team title by a whopping 465 points. Due to the small size of the Big 12 Conference, there were only enough swimmers to fill an average of about five heats per event, meaning only about 16 swimmers didn’t make finals in each event.
With her current best times, Ulicny stands to make a huge scoring impact for the Horned Frogs at Big 12s: she would have placed 8th in 500-yard free, 23rd in 100-yard fly, 15th in 400-yard IM, 7th in 200-yard free, and 12th in 200-yard fly. In all likelihood, she will swim the 500-yard free, the 200-yard free, and the 200-yard fly as they project to be her highest-scoring events and are spread out one event each day of the meet. With her current 200-yard free best time, she also has the potential to make TCU’s 4×200-yard free relay, as her flat-start best time is only 0.11 slower than graduated senior Sally Clough’s 1:50.61 anchor leg.
With all of that said, the Big 12 is shaping up to look a lot different as soon as Ulicny’s sophomore year. With dominant Texas slated to join the SEC most likely by 2025 (when their media contracts for football with the Big 12 expire) the finals heats will open up significantly. At 2022 Big 12s, the Texas women more often than not snagged the top three spots, or took up the majority of the A-final. With Texas’ 9-time consecutive winning team out of the conference, TCU could be within striking range of a Big 12 title.
Ulicny will be joining freestylers Sydney Inman and Alexis Drap, backstroker Morgan Rodriguez, butterflyer Inge Ehm, breaststroker Nina Vadovicova and diver Jordyn Warner for the class of 2027.
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Also worth mentioning 4 schools are headed to the BIG XII for the fall of 2023. Three of those schools having a women’s swim program.
U. Cincinnati, U. Houston and BYU.
Congrats Amanda! And Go Frogs!!