Photo courtesy of Dennis Churilla
Ethan Churilla of Highland, Indiana has verbally committed to swim for Northwestern University in the class of 2023.
“I’m excited to announce my verbal commitment to swim at Northwestern! Its a great university in a great city with an incredible new coaching staff. Thank you to my family, coaches, teammates and friends for all of their support. Go Cats!”
Churilla is a NISCA All-American in his senior year at Highland High School. He placed third in both the 50 free (20.38) and 100 free (45.35) at the 2018 IHSAA Boys Swimming/Diving Championship, scoring all 32 points to put Highland 17th in the team standings. In 2017 he finished 3rd and 5th in the respective events, and as a freshman in 2016 he was 5th and 8th. While the color of his medals may not have varied significantly, Churilla has had steady time drops throughout his prep career.
| IHSAA Championships | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 |
| 50 free | 21.12 | 20.74 | 20.38 |
| 100 free | 46.34 | 46.04 | 45.35 |
Churilla swims year-round at Highland Hurricanes Swim Club under coach Nick Castillo. After notching PBs in the 50/100 free during his junior year high school season, he competed in the 50m free and 100m free at Speedo Summer Junior Nationals this past August. His best 50m free time comes from 2017 Nashville Futures, where he took third. He swam a lifetime best in the 100m free at PSS Atlanta in February 2018.
Top times:
- 50 SCY free – 20.38
- 100 SCY free – 45.21
- 50 LCM free – 23.87
- 100 LCM free – 53.51
If you have a commitment to report, please send an email with a photo (landscape, or horizontal, looks best) and a quote to [email protected].
Solid get for Northwestern. Getting 0 recruits a few years back was about as rock-bottom as you can get, but it looks like they are making some strides the past couple classes.