Mario Koenigsperger has signed a National Letter of Intent to swim at University of Southern California beginning in the fall of 2016. Koenigsperger is a high school graduate from Sacred Heart College in Auckland. He swims for the club team Howick Pakuranga and is a member of New Zealand’s Youth Team. Koenigsperger represented New Zealand at the Commonwealth Youth Games in Samoa from September 5-12, 2015.
“I’m very excited to become part of the Trojan family. USC has an incredible swimming and diving program with world class coaches and swimmers both in the college group and in the pro group. It’s also one of the world’s leading academic universities. I look forward to spending my next few years in LA!” #FightOn
Koenigsperger recently broke two New Zealand national age group records: 50 LCM breast (28.68) on March 28 and 100 LCM breast on April 18. He was runner-up in the 100 breast and bronze medalist in the 50 breast at NZ Olympic Trials and won the 50/100/200 breaststroke events at New Zealand Age Championships Wellington.
Koenigsperger’s top times, converted, include:
| LCM | SCY, converted | |
| 50m breast | 28.68 | 24.83 |
| 100m breast | 1:01.80 | 53.51 |
| 200m breast | 2:16.30 | 1:58.30 |
| 50m free | 23.43 | 20.38 |
| 100m free | 52.92 | 46.19 |
| 50m fly | 25.15 | 22.08 |
Koenigsperger would made the Trojans’ top 5 performances in the 100 breast and 200 breast during the 2015-16 season. He will join a training group that includes Carsten Vissering, Billy Monjay, and Jonah Hu, and will be classmates with fellow-commits Mark Jurek and Thomas Reed.
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Just a question. Do the foreign swimmers come on scholarship or do they usually “pay” full tuition with the payoff just being able to get an education at a US university. My opinion is that with all the student debt problems that we have that any type of scholarships (either academic or athletic) should be given to residents of the USA.
Usually the education isn’t of any concern for foreign swimmers. I know for a fact that most Kiwi swimmers fight to earn their scholarships because New Zealand has an abysmal high performance swimming program whereas US universities provide amazing support and opportunities.
Quick Q: didn’t Thormeyer decide to stay in Canada and not go to USC? I might be mistaken with that – my apologies if so….
Nice pickup but doesn’t take the sting away from Thormeyer’s de-commit to USC. USC Men’s swimming recruiting big disappointment for 2016 with only Jurek a nationally-ranked prospect. Tough to compete with in-state rivals Cal and Stanford when they pull in 5-6 national or international level swimmers for every one who signs with USC. Hopefully Trojans can get the recruiting in gear for the class of 2017. See link below for SwimSwam news on Thormeyer.
http://swimswam.com/world-jr-champ-markus-thormeyer-de-commits-from-usc-heads-to-ubc/
Markus de-committed