The University of North Carolina got in on the recruiting action this week, picking up a verbal from Nation’s Capital Swim Club freestyler Robyn Dryer.
Dryer is a former National Age Group record-holder in the 800 free relay, a mark she set along with club teammates Janet Hu, Megan Byrnes and Katie Ledecky. That 15-18 mark has since gone down courtesy of SwimMAC, but Dryer put up the leadoff leg of 1:49.54 to help break the record.
She also swims for West Springfield High School out of Springfield Virginia.
Dryer’s Top Times
- 200 free: 1:49.12
- 500 free: 4:50.41
- 1650 free: 16:43.81
- 100 back: 56.46
- 200 back: 2:01.05
Dryer joins a UNC squad that is coming off a runner-up finish at the ACC Championships. The Tar Heels are notoriously loaded with freestylers, so Dryer’s addition makes a team strength even stronger. Her lifetime-bests would have scored in all three freestyle races 200 yards and up at the 2014 ACC Championships. Her mile time in particular is an encouraging sign for UNC following the graduation of longtime distance star Stephanie Peacock last spring.
Beast mode
Women peak earlier than men. So there are more high school girls ready to step in and make an immediate impact than high school boys–so more of the girls’ commitments might be considered newsworthy than the boys’.
Jim C – while that’s an interesting theory, our experience has been that as we get closer to signing day, you’ll see a flood of boys recruits.
For what it’s worth, we haven’t not reported a single commitment that we’ve seen so far this fall.
Braden is right. College coaches like to upgrade a swimmer’s scholarships based on their improvement. The NCAA allows coaches to guarantee scholarships beyond the first year. Not very many of them are doing so yet.
From what I have seen over the past several years, the girls are getting more confident and doing a better job of selling themselves to the college coaches. I had the pleasure of working with Kiera Michailoff-Russell, Carsten Vissering and Robyn Dryer in the recruiting process and they had a large number of schools recruiting them. The main thing I pointed out to them is that they could not go wrong with any of the schools that were recruiting them. All were excellent academic schools with excellent coaches.
I think the girls are learning how to trust their “gut instinct.”
For a recruit to officially “sign” they must receive some form of athletic scholarship. They can give a… Read more »
First and foremost, congrats to Robyn. Carolina’s a terrific school with a great swim program. All the best to her.
I get that very few swimmers receive full rides, but how common is it for scholarship money to be adjusted year to year based on performance?
duckduckgoose – VERY common. Anecdotally, I’d say like 90%, sometimes up sometimes down.
Wow, I learn something new every day on SwimSwam!
Me too!
Can I assume that all the commitments we seen so far are full ride scholarships. Even the ones at Cal? I have heard that some big schools offer partial so I was just wondering??
Nearly every program doles out their scholarships in partials; you have to be at a Franklin or Smoliga level — or close to it — to get a full ride. Unlike some sports like football (or soccer, I believe), swim programs are free to divvy up their scholarship money as they see fit. Many programs will start off freshman with partial scholarships — on the order of 15 or 20 percent — then gradually increase that as the swimmer (or diver) progresses through the program. Scholarships are also one-year commitments, not four years as is commonly thought.
I would say you can assume that most of these are not full scholarships except for the top 10 to maybe top 20 recruits in the country. Unless a swimmer is going to come in being the fastest on the team, by far, in multiple events, I would predict they aren’t on a full ride. On my college team we had maybe 2 or 3 swimmers on full rides. Men’s programs are limited to 9.9 scholarships and women’s programs are limited to 14. If you have a squad of 25-30, there are very few full rides. For some athletes who are strong in the classroom, they may have a full ride combining athletic and academic scholarships and that academic money… Read more »
I’m confused about the math. Most programs seem to have about 5 recruited swimmers join per year. That’s 20 total. Let’s assume 2 of those don’t need scholarship aid or need very little, because of low in-state tuition, need aid or merit aid, or wealth. That leaves 14 scholarships for 18 swimmers, which would give everyone at least a 75% scholarship, or a 100% ride for a number of swimmers. What am I missing?
First, I would argue that most teams have more than five recruited swimmers each year. I would say teams average 7-8 with probably a transfer in there too. To get to a travel squad size taking into account injuries, you need to have a squad of between 25 and 30.
Second, many teams aren’t fully funded so even though they have the ability to give out 9.9 or 14 scholarships per season, they don’t have the funds to do so.
Third, I think it’s a stretch to assume 2 of those won’t need a scholarship or will only need a little money. Giving an in state student 20% counts the same towards the total scholarship limit as giving… Read more »
Also this: If a team has any commitment toward diving (some don’t, but most national programs at least attempt to), it has to allocate some level of its scholarships to diving. So the 14 may really only be 12 for a women’s team, and less than 9 for a men’s team — and that’s if those are fully funded.
I was just wondering the same thing about the number of commitments by gender so far. Haven’t counted, but it seems like 2:1 girls to guys. It also seems like a lot more of the top females have committed. I think only one of top 10 guys has committed so far, but could be wrong.
TheTroubleWithX – this seems to be a pattern most years. The women almost always commit earlier than the men.
Of our top 10, Vissering and Mulcare have committed, I believe.
Congrats Robyn! seems like a great fit.
On a semi-related note: is it just me or does it seem like a lot more girls have committed than guys. Anyone see a reason for this
There are just a lot more scholarships to go around on the women’s side than men’s. I think there are — roughly — about a third more D1 collegiate women’s programs than men’s, and roughly a third more scholarships among women’s programs than men’s programs. So it just seems likely that there are more offers out there for women than men.