Ireland’s Lottie Cullen Commits To Houston (2024)

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Lottie Cullen has announced that she will continue her academic and athletic career at the University of Houston, beginning with the 2024-2025 season. Cullen currently trains and competes year-round with the Royal Wolverhampton School.

She shared her commitment on Instagram:

Cullen is primarily a backstroke specialist. She most recently competed for Swim Ireland at the Luxembourg Euro meet in January, where she earned her highest finish in the the 50m and 200m backstroke at 11th. Her 50 backstroke time of 29.56 marked a season best, putting her within a second of her career best set last April at the Irish Open.

In December at the Swim Wales Winter Championship (SCM), Cullen took 1st in the 50 backstroke with a 27.86 in finals. She also notched a personal best time in the 200 backstroke, swimming a 2:10.81 to finish 4th overall. Over the course of the short course season, Cullen’s best time in the 100 back improved by well over a second, while her 200 back came down by over five seconds.

Top LCM Times (Converted SCY):

  • 50m backstroke – 29.04 (25.62)
  • 100m backstroke – 1:02.98 (55.65)
  • 200m backstroke – 2:19.29 (2:03.32)

The University of Houston is a Division I mid-major program that competes in the American Athletic Conference. Houston recently secured their 7th consecutive AAC title, despite Florida International’s arrival in the conference. However, Houston announced that they will make the transition to the Big 12 conference this summer, making this past AACs their last.

The backstroke events were among the weakest for Houston this time around, as they tallied only 13 points in the 100 back and 34 in the 200 back. The top finisher in both the 100 and 200 was Julia Koluch, who took 14th in the 100 (55.97) and 9th in the 200 (1:59.52). Landry Hadder joined Koluch in the B-final of the 200, clocking a 2:00.75 to place 13th overall. Koluch will have graduated by the time Cullen arrives on campus, but she will overlap with Hadder for two years .

Houston has a history of successfully recruiting international athletes, and currently has ten swimmers on the roster with hometowns outside of the United States. 

Cullen is the first public commitment for Houston’s class of 2028. The incoming class of 2027 features Elizabeth Jimenez Garrido, Tierney Howell, Evelyn Entrekin, Nora Hetyei, Megan Unruh, and Sydney Nethercutt. Garrido and Hetyei are also international, coming from the Dominican Republic and Hungary, respectively.

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Lpman
1 year ago

Those conversions are way off