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Madison O’Connell has announced her verbal commitment to swim and study at the University of California–San Diego for the fall of 2024. Her brother, Evan O’Connell, also swims and is currently a sophomore at Cal Poly.
O’Connell is a junior at Carondelet High School in Concord, California. In addition to swimming for her high school, she also trains and competes year-round with the Crow Canyon Sharks.
“I am very happy to announce my verbal commitment to study and swim at UC San Diego! I want to thank my family, coaches and teammates through all the years to get me to this point. Thank you coaches Jake, Ethan, Joe and Roque! Thank you to Coach Marko and staff and the team at UCSD for choosing me to be part of this amazing team. Let’s go Tritons!”
O’Connell has seen the most success recently in fly and back, and she owns Futures qualifying times in the 100 back, 200 back, 100 fly, 200 fly, 500 free, and 1000. Although her distance freestyle has plateaued since 2020, her backstroke times have continued to come down.
Top SCY Times:
- 500 free – 4:59.51
- 1000 free – 10:13.10
- 100 back – 56.29
- 200 back – 2:00.55
- 100 fly – 56.38
- 200 fly – 2:02.29
This summer, O’Connell competed at the Far Western Championships and Speedo Sectionals in July. At Far Westerns, she recorded a personal best time in the 50m free (29.09), and posted her highest finish as 9th in the 100m back (1:10.42). At the Roseville Sectionals the previous week, O’Connell posted season best times in the 100 back (1:09.03) and 100 fly (1:07.01), while also recording a 15th place finish in the 200 back (2:27.48).
At the 2022 CIF State Championships in May, she competed individually in the 100 back, where she posted a 27th place finish with a 57.65. She also competed at the Carlsbad Speedo Sectionals in March, where she recorded as high as a 21st place finish in the 200 back with a personal best time of 2:00.55.
UC San Diego competes in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF). The Triton women took home the team title last season, winning by just 12.5 points over Hawaii. O’Connell’s best 200 back time would have been just outside the A-final, while her 200 fly time would have been 7th in prelims at last year’s meet. She is also projected to score in the 100 fly, 100 back, and 500.
So far this season, sophomore Lexi DePaco leads the team in the 200 fly. DePaco, who also used to be O’Connell’s club teammate at the Crow Canyon Sharks, swam a 2:00.84 at the Utah Tech Trailblazer Invite this past month.
The 200 back is a much deeper event for the Tritons, with senior Valerie Yue leading the team this year at 2:00.33. She is followed by Alana Barthel (2:01.26) and Teagan Monroe (2:02.28).
O’Connell is UC-San Diego’s first public commitment for their class of 2028.
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