NIC Champion Aislinn Walsh Will Finish Her Career at UCLA, to “Try Something New”

CSCAA National Invitational Champion Aislinn Walsh will conclude her collegiate career next season at UCLA after graduating from Ohio State University. There she will be reunited with former Ohio State assistant Jordan Wolfrum, who recruited her to Columbus.

“I absolutely loved Ohio State and they gave me so much but I was ready for a change and coach Jordan Wolfrum actually recruited me to Ohio State my junior year of high school and I decided to reach out to her and see what things were like at UCLA,” Walsh said. “They offer a masters in leadership and coaching and I’m interested in pursuing strength coaching because my strength coach at OSU, Ryan Sprague, is one of the absolute best. So it just seemed like the perfect fit and (opportunity) to take advantage of the Covid year and try something new!”

In her last meet with the Buckeyes, Walsh won the CSCAA National Invitational Championship in the 100 fly, also placing 2nd in the 50 fly and 3rd in the 100 IM.

At the Big Ten Championships, Walsh scored 54 points for the Buckeyes as they won their fourth-straight conference title. That tied her for the 10th-most on the team, and included a best finish of 8th place in the 100 fly.

Those results wrapped a successful senior season that saw Walsh swim most of her personal bests in her primary events.

Best Times in Yards:

Walsh was part of a massive senior class for the Buckeyes that scored 452 points. No other senior class scored more than 248.5 (Northwestern). The Buckeyes, pending how many come back for a 5th year, will be in a battle next season with Indiana and Michigan to keep their title streak alive.

She joins a UCLA team that has cashed in big on Big Ten transfers in the last couple of years. Former Michigan Wolverine and All-American Kaitlynn Sims transferred to UCLA last season, though she wound up not swimming at the Pac-12 Championships.

The UCLA women finished 4th as a team at the Pac-12 Championships. That included a 3rd-place finish in the 400 medley relay with three seniors on the roster. Among those seniors was Gabby Dang, who swam the butterfly leg, splitting 53.54.

Walsh could wind up contributing to a lot of relays at UCLA, though she didn’t do many relays at Ohio State. Walsh’s best time in the 100 free, for example, was a 50.47 in high school. The Bruins had three seniors on their 400 free relay as well, with the slowest split being a 49.53 on a rolling start.

Walsh said that part of the appeal at UCLA for her was that the program is trending upwards.

“I loved the idea of taking what I learned at OSU to a program like theirs to help with the trend!” she told SwimSwam.

Out of high school, Walsh was wildly-versatile, which included a 1:01 in the 100 breaststroke. She wound up focusing mostly on the butterfly races, though, at Ohio State, though she did swim the 100 breast at Big Tens as a freshman.

Walsh is a native of South Bend, Indiana.