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Fly and free specialist Olivia Detter has announced her verbal commitment to Northwestern University, beginning in the fall of 2024.
Detter currently attends the Castilleja School, located in Palo Alto, California. She also swims year-round with Palo Alto Stanford Aquatics.
“I chose Northwestern because I loved the amazing team, coaches and high-level academics. From the moment I stepped on campus, I felt like I was at home. I can’t wait to begin my journey as a Wildcat!”
Even with two years left to develop, Detter is already a relatively specialized swimmer. She heavily focuses on sprint freestyle and sprint butterfly, and she has consistently competed in those events in almost every meet in the last year.
Top SCY Times:
- 50 free – 23.61
- 100 free – 50.82
- 200 free – 1:51.29
- 100 fly – 56.15
Detter last competed at Speedo Summer Juniors in August where she recorded a lifetime best in the 100 fly (1:02.09), dropping a few tenths from her previous best set at Futures. At Futures, she also set a best time in the 200 free (2:06.72), earning 14th place. Over the course of the summer, Detter has dropped nearly a second and a half in the 100 free, going from a 59.43 in 2021 to a 57.96 at the 2022 Santa Clara Super League Summer LC Finals.
Detter had a breakthrough meet this past spring at the Pacific Swimming Short Course Far Western Championship in April. She set best times in all but one of her six events, while also earning top 3 finishes in 3 events. She had a big best time in the 200 free (1:51.29), dropping nearly 3 seconds from her previous best set in 2021. She also dropped over a second in the 100 free (51.18), which she improved on again a few weeks later at the CIF Central Coast Section Championship (50.82).
Northwestern placed 5th out of 12 teams at last year’s Big Ten Championship. Detter likely has the best chance at scoring for the Wildcats in the 100 free, where it took a 49.79 to advance to finals. It took a 22.79 for the 50 free and a 54.44 in the 100 fly. Northwestern put both Maddie Smith (47.71) and Jasmine Nocentini (47.76) in the A-final of the 100 free, followed by Ally Larson (49.13) in the B. Northwestern’s 400 freestyle relay placed 4th overall, which had all three of the finalists on it, plus Jasmine Hellmer (49.98). All of those athletes will have graduated by the time Detter arrives in Evanston.
Northwestern’s current freshmen class is deep with sprint talent. Riley Huddleston (22.98/50.23/55.88 fly) comes in with best times similar to Detter, while Lindsay Irvin (22.84/49.48) and Jamie Brennan (23.20/49.75) come in with a 100 free times projected to score at Big Tens. Audrey Yu is another sprinter in the class, coming in with a best time of 22.64 in the 50 free.
The Wildcats’ class of 2027 is also a very sprint-oriented class, with a few sub-50 and 50.0 100 freestylers. Amy Pan (23.05/49.97) and Sydney Smith (23.31/49.74) lead the way, followed by Audrey J-Chang (23.55/50.77) and Maggie Belbot (23.38/50.28).
Detter joins Virginia native Grey Davis in Northwestern’s class of 2028. Davis swims very different events than Detter, as she focuses primarily on IM, fly, and back.
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