Ranking The 2022 Women’s NCAA Recruiting Classes: Honorable Mentions

See also:

• Individual recruit rankings – Girls final rankings
• Individual recruit rankings – Boys final rankings

We continue our 2022 recruiting series with a team-by-team look at the best recruiting classes entering the NCAA next season. The classes below are projected freshmen for the 2022-2023 season.

A few important notes on our rankings:

• The rankings listed are based on our Class of 2022 Re-Rank. “HM” refers to our honorable mentions and “BOTR” refers to our best of the rest section for top-tier recruits.
• Like most of our rankings, these placements are subjective. We base our team ranks on a number of factors: prospects’ incoming times are by far the main factor, but we also consider potential upside in the class, class size, relay impact and team needs filled. Greater weight is placed on known success in short course yards, so foreign swimmers are slightly devalued based on the difficulty in converting long course times to short course production.
• Transfers are included.
• For the full list of all verbally committed athletes, click here. A big thank you to SwimSwam’s own Anne Lepesant for compiling that index – without it, rankings like these would be far less comprehensive.
• Some teams had not released a finalized 2022-23 team roster at the time these articles were published, meaning it’s possible we missed some names. Let us know in the comments below.

We’ll count down our top 16 classes – but first, the top teams outside those ranks:

Honorable Mentions (in no particular order):

Tennessee: Julia Burroughs is a homegrown talent from the state of Tennessee who made our “Best of the Rest” list of recruits just outside the top 20 nationally. She’s 22.6/49.3 in the sprint freestyles and should be a major relay player for the Volunteers over her career. She’s also 1:46.9 in the 200 free, showing nice range. Tennessee also nabbed a key transfer: former SEC champion diver Tanesha Lucoe who joins the Volunteers after winning the conference platform title as an Alabama junior this past year. Lucoe is a likely conference superstar and a returning NCAA qualifier.

Penn State: Penn State nabbed two recruits from our “Best of the Rest” section just outside the top 20 recruits nationwide. In a deep class of freestylers, Catherine Meisner is a high-level mid-distance type who should contribute early on individually with a 4:48.5 in the 500 free, while her 1:46.5 speed in the 200 free brings individual and relay scoring potential. Krista Marlin brings in a 400 IM time (4:10.4) that would have earned an NCAA invite last year.

Harvard: Harvard’s class is led by two “Best of the Rest” recruits who could combine to hold up the medley relays for years. Californian Sydney Lu is 52.7/1:56.8 in the butterfly races, while Anya Mostek out of Pennsylvania is 53.2/1:56.2 in backstroke. Lu is also a solid IMer and Mostek should add some sprint free speed with times of 22.7/49.3 out of high school.

UCLA: The Bruins brought in an excellent class headed by two international distance swimmers with times that convert right around NCAA scoring level. Turkey’s Beril Böcekler (1:59.7/4:06.6/8:32/16:21 long course meters freestyle) is a potential two-event scorer coming in the door with times converting to 4:37 in the 500 free and 16:02 in the 1650 free. Canada’s Katrina Bellio (1:59.5/4:11.0/8:28/16:24 long course meters freestyle) is a little speedier in the 200, but still converts to about NCAA scoring level with a 16:05 mile. Ashley Kolessar joins the class from Pennsylvania, bringing 1:59.9/4:12.6 IM speed. The Bruins also get 1:01.4/2:13.7 breaststroker Morganne Malloy and 54.1/1:56.0 backstroker Rosie Murphy.

Georgia: A large Georgia class includes 1:46.4/4:47.7/16:38 distance swimmer Morgan Razewski, one of our “Best of the Rest” prospects. The class is also bolstered by fifth-year transfer Marie Schobel, who was 52.1/1:54.3 in the backstrokes last year for Penn State. One more name of note: Iowa high school prospect Heidi Stalkfleet, who is 4:48.5/16:34 in distance free out of high school.

Princeton: Princeton should bolster its free relays with two solid freestyle prospects. New Yorker Sabrina Johnston has been 22.7/49.2 in the sprints and wasn’t too far outside of our top 20 domestic recruits. (She’s also 1:47.2 in the 200 free and 53.4 in backstroke). Meanwhile London, England’s Caroline Lewitt is 26.4/56.8/2:04.9 in long course meters, roughly converting to 23.1, 50.1, and 1:49.5. For the 800 free relay, add in distance swimmer Megan Reich out of New Hampshire, who is 1:48.9 in the 200 free and 4:47.6 in the 500.

Northwestern: 4:12.9 IMer Hana Shimizu-Bowers is the headliner for Northwestern, bringing in a ton of versatility including a 4:47.6 500 free and a 1:58.0 200 fly. Former Sandpiper of Nevada Audrey Yu is a 22.6 speedster who is also sub-50 in the 100 free. Lindsay Ervin (22.8/49.4) and Riley Huddleston (22.9/50.2) join her under 23 seconds, providing a lot of free relay options, for the 200 free relay at least.