Maybe Auburn coach Brett Hawke has a beef with Cal’s Teri McKeever. Maybe he’s got a plan to take his impressive sprint-freestyle methodologies and translate them to backstroke. Maybe…well it’s tough to explain.
The Auburn Tigers have grabbed their 3rd backstroker in the class of 2012, to go along with sophomore Emily Bos, who has a chance to be one of the best in the SEC this year, and freshman backstroker Erica Belcher. The latest verbal commitment came from Sarah Reynolds from the Montgomery YMCA Barracudas.
Thus far into the recruiting season (with Jillian Vitarius and Caitlyn Forman already committed), the only program that has signed a more impressive backstroking group is Cal. Reynolds comes in with bests of 54.2/1:57.7, and was a natural fit for Auburn as one of the best senior swimmers in the state of Alabama, but still odd in terms of stroke groupings. If any of them have a chance at switching strokes, it might just be Reynolds, who also has a 55.39 in the 100 fly.
These are the types of situations that make college swimming interesting. A team that obviously has more great backstrokers than a typical program will score at year’s end, and will now have to strategize to find the best combinations to maximize their value to the team.
