Mike Bottom Gets Verbals from Horton; Salem to Continue Recruitng Roll

With the official early signing period beginning next Wednesday (the 14th) the fun we’ve been having the past few weeks with announcing a flood of verbal commitments will slow to a trickle for the next few months. Still, there’s a lot more to announce before we’re done. If you have a picture from signing day, to any school at any level, please submit it to [email protected].

During the last few seasons of Jim Richardson’s 27-year tenure as the head coach of the Michigan women, the performances in the pool weren’t as good as they had been earlier in his career. He did leave Mike Bottom, who added the women’s head coaching duties to his role as the lead of the men’s program, with quite a gift after signing a great recruiting class last fall.

Bottom has picked up right where Richardson left off, and is bringing in a great women’s class this fall already. The two big verbals come from Brazilian Julia Salem and SwimAtlanta’s Madison Horton.

Salem, out of Sao Paulo, is one of the best in what is a very thin Brazilian women’s side, but comes out with the potential to become a focal-point of the Michigan relays for the next four years. According to CollegeSwimming.com, she has bests in short course meters of 25.66 (which converts to around a 23-low in yards) and a 55.91 in the 100 free (sub-51 in yards). She is the Sao Paulo State Record holder in the 100 free at the junior level, and the 2011 Brazilian Junior National Champion in the 50 free in long course.

Though, as mentioned, Brazil is not known for their production of female sprinters, they are known quite well for what they’ve done with sprinters on the men’s side. If Salem has anywhere near that kind of potential, then this could be a huge grab for the Wolverines, and maybe the beginning of a pipeline. Afterall, Brazil’s women’s group, though underdeveloped training-wise, do not lack for talent and athleticism.

Salem also has some skills in the backstroke races.

Madison Horton comes from the smoldering hotbed of swimming in Atlanta, and specifically SwimAtlanta. She is a breaststroker, with bests of 1:02.98 and 2:16.50 in the 100 and 200 yard races, respectively.

Horton didn’t have a great junior season in yards (only a 1:03.5 in the 100 breaststroke, for example), but instead she spent the summer really hammering away at her long course events. Like many swimmers in the class, her taper meet was the NCSA Junior Nationals. Typically, this meet is all yards, but this year it was yards prelims and meters finals; if we assume most swimmers will improve in finals, then the 1:03.50 she went in prelims might be a better swim than it will be given credit for.

In long course she dipped below a 1:13 to a 1:12.8 at a June Invitational at Auburn.

The Wolverines will have two pretty good breaststrokers returning for their senior seasons next year in Nikki Hubbard and Angie Chokran, but in general are very thin there going forward. The Big Ten is stacked in breaststrokers, so it’s hard to compete there without one.