The SMU women have added three transfers from Washington State for the upcoming 2026-2027 season. Dori Hathazi, Ashlyn Hernandez, and Cecilia Ronnlund will arrive this fall.
Hathazi is a huge pick up for SMU as she qualified for the 2025 NCAA Championships and finished 25th in the 200 fly with a 1:55.33. She did not compete for Washington State at all this past season. She also swam in prelims of the 200 fly at both 2023 (1:56.29, 31st) and 2024 (1:56.71, 36th) NCAAs. She has one year remaining. Her best time in the 200 fly of a 1:54.87 would have notably made the 2026 ACC ‘A’ final.
Hernandez just finished her sophomore season with Washington State and scored 65 individual points at the 2026 Big West Championships. She finished 7th in the 100 breast (1:00.86), 8th in the 200 breast (2:13.53), and 9th in the 200 IM (1:59.51). That was her first time breaking 2:00 in the 200 IM. Hernandez would have led the SMU women this past season in both breaststroke events as well as the 200 IM.
Ronnlund just finished her freshman season. She was not on the team’s scoring roster at the 2026 Big West Championships but had a strong showing with lifetime bests in all of her events. She swam to a 23.05 50 free, 50.50 100 free, and a 1:50.97 200 free.
The SMU women only had 17 women on their roster this past season, with seven of those being freshman. The program is still rebuilding after many transfers, cuts, and graduations during summer 2024. The program just finished its 2nd season in the ACC and was 14th out of 15 teams at ACCs with 261 points, only 13 points behind 13th place Georgia Tech.
Two years ago, Maddy Parker and Mira Szimcsak transferred from Washington State to SMU. Parker will be a senior this fall, and Szimcsak only competed for a season with the team.
The better swimmer in the article was not on the WSU roster this year after qualifying for NCAA the year before. And then WSU had their best season ever — without her. Do the math. Clearly more to the story.
5 WSU swimmers to SMU since ozzie moved in? That’s almost half his current roster. One has to wonder about any shady business going on… wouldn’t be his first recruiting violation (not that he was remorseful about the last one)
they will hate the head coach in 3 weeks, remember my words xD
probably not making relays at wazzu. maybe not on a lot of money? SMU has money, relay spots and a really nice facility. Russ has been doing a great job and we’ll see what ozzie can do with this talent. but a lot easier to score at mountain west/new pac-12 than ACC
Look at conference results and relays coach! Money and relay spots weren’t the issue! Don’t comment unless you actually know what you’re talking about!
Weird. I thought the WSU swimmers in the portal were on the lower end of the roster and the program was building… this contradicts that thought process.
Nope! Thought wrong! Everyone transferint to SMU from WSU is in fact not at the bottom of the roster! We have a 3x NCAA qualifier thank you! Check you info before commenting straight garbage!
Holy SMU meat riding I didn’t even know they had superfans like that
Lol you must’ve missed the memes.
Oh i wasn’t throwing shade at SMU. My comment was focused on the Wazzu roster and the fast swimmers transferring out of there. I didn’t expect those particular swimmers to transfer out
Ok, first Parker and Szimcsak two years ago and now Hathazi, Hernandez, and Ronnlund. If I were the Washington State head coach I would think Ozzie has a personal vendetta against me. Honestly, there’s no other logical explanation for the amount of swimmers that have left washington state to go to SMU. Could someone please fill me in on the WSU/SMU beef?
You may want to brush up on all the SMU exoduses since Ozzie took over. The SMU roster is very small for actual swimmers not including divers and there are reasons. Not sure if this is out of the frying pan and into the fire?
Ok so if you actually read my comment you would know that’s not at all what i was asking. I was wondering why almost every single person who has transferred out of WSU in the past two years has gone to a program like SMU, despite all the controversy surrounding them
Yeah seems odd that swimmers would transfer to the same program their teammates transferred to a year earlier if it was that bad right? Gotta believe they talked.
Ozzie always treats his top few swimmers very well, and the rest not so much. Parker is his top swimmer. Anyone from smu in the portal yet this year?
I understand the question. It’s probably the only D1 program with an empty roster that really needs swimmers. And yes they have a few teammates that are there and were treated well enough to make it through one season and decided to come back. With only 12 swimmers I’m sure the scholarship money is also pretty attractive plus everyone goes to conference etc. but there is a price to pay and a reason. But if you look at the revolving door you can see there were a lot of unhappy swimmers as well. In 2024-5 they had 14 swimmers. Three graduated and 5 either quit or transferred leaving only 6 returning for 25-26. 6 more were added for 12. Only… Read more »
‘Quit’ or got cut? With SMU moving into the ACC that next year what was Ozzie supposed to do?
There’s no beef, Parker must know how to recruit
has a team ever had 5 swimmers transfer to the same program within 2 years? WSU to SMU pipeline is going strong
Would be good to see SMU swimming become more than just a meme