Italian Freestyler Ilaria Murzilli Commits to Nebraska

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Italian swimmer Ilaria Murzilli from Rome, Italy has verbally committed to Nebraska. She is expected to join the Cornhuskers in the fall of 2021.

I am very happy to be able to announce my commitment to swimming and studying at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. I chose this university because I am sure it can give me great opportunities for sports growth, as they have excellent programs for my swimming specialties. I also chose it for the excellent academic qualities. I thank coach Pablo Morales for the opportunity given to me and the scholarship offered to me; for this I will commit myself to give my best. I also thank the assistant coach Patrik Rowan for his availability and also thank the girls from the swimming team. Finally I thank my parents, my aunt and my club coach for the support.

While Italians have not traditionally relied as much as the NCAA system to advance their swimming as many other countries have, Murzilli is part of a growing group of Italian swimmers who are moving stateside for college. That includes names like Federico Burdisso at Northwestern, Tania Quaglieri at Florida State, and Giovanni Izzo at NC State.

Murzilli is primarily a distance freestyler who, so far in her career, has been very good in short course meters. At the 2019 Italian National Championships, she finished 14th in the 400 free in long course meters.

She’s a rangy enough freestyler to contribute to Nebraska’s free relays as well. In addition to her flat-start best of 57.71 in the 100 free in short course, she has split 56.83 on a relay as well.

Best Times in LCM, SCM, SCY:

LCM SCM SCY (Conversion)
100 Free 59.10 57.71 51.99
200 Free 2:04.00 2:01.43 1:49.39
400/500 Free 4:17.22 4:11.72 4:47.68
800/1000 Free 8:50.67 8:35.19 9:48.78

The Nebraska women finished 10th out of 13 teams at last year’s Big Ten Championship meet, and as Murzilli alluded to, their strength was the distance freestyles. With 20 points, 22, points, and 39 points, respectively, the distance freestyles represented 3 of the team’s 4 highest-scoring individual swimming events (the other was the 200 fly at 27 points).

Nebraska’s current rising senior class were their biggest scorers at the Big Ten Championships last season, including Big Ten 8th-place finisher in the 500 free Autumn Haebig, so Murzilli’s arrival in the fall of 2021 will help soften the blow of their graduation. Nebraska will also have graduated all 4 legs of their 9th-place 800 free relay from last season by the time Murzilli arrives on campus.

Murzilli trains with Unicusano Aurelia Nuoto in Rome and turns 18 this year. Nebraska had two other international swimmers, both from South America, on their 2019-2020 roster among 36 total athletes.

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dmswim
3 years ago

Nebraska finished 10th out of 13 teams, not 12 teams.

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Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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