Courtesy: USC Athletics
The USC swimming team opens the regular season with the Trojan Invite with a Friday session at 2 p.m. as well as Saturday sessions at 8:30 and 11: 30 a.m. at the Uytengsu Aquatics Center.
The meet is based on the NCAA Championships format and will include teams from UNLV, Cal State Bakersfield and UC San Diego as well as a handful of club swimmers.
The USC women features an upperclassmen-laden squad with 12 seniors and 10 juniors, led by defending junior NCAA 100y fly champion and Trojan co-captain Louise Hansson.
Hansson was a three-time All-American as a 2018 sophomore, her season highlighted by capturing USC’s first national title in the 100y fly with the second-fastest time ever (49.80) at the 2018 NCAA Championships. She complemented the win with a career-best third in the 200y fly while leading USC’s 200y medley relay to seventh.
Senior Maddie Wright is USC’s other returning individual All-American from last season after reaching the 200y fly for the second year in a row. Other All-Americans returning include fellow 200y medley relay finalists sophomore Marta Ciesla and senior Riley Scott.
Additionally, redshirt junior All-Americans Kirsten Vose and Hanni Leach are also back after missing last season due to injuries. Vose was an NCAA individual finalist in the 200y breast and 200y IM as a freshman and a two-time All-American in the 400y free relay while Leach earned All-American honors as part of USC’s 2017 200y and 400y medley relays.
Scott (100y breast) and sophomore Maggie Aroesty (200y breast) return as the defending Pac-12 champions in the breaststroke and both were NCAA B final first-place finishers in each distance as well.
USC returns four veteran divers, led by three-time NCAA participant senior Madi Witt and multiple Pac-12 finalist junior Naomi Gowlett.
USC Head Coach Dave Salo, in his 13th year directing the Trojans, also has a host of newcomers who figure to lend immediate dual meet and postseason scoring.
The Trojans’ men’s team is coming off of sixth place finish at the 2018 NCAA Championships and a third at the Pac-12s and will be led by a pair of returning 2018 individual All-American in seniors Patrick Mulcare and Cartsen Vissering.
Mulcare is a three-time NCAA finalist in the 200y back while Vissering is a two-time finalist in the 100y breast and the only returning member of USC’s 2018 NCAA title-winning 200y medley relay. Both were 2017 Pac-12 champions in their specialties.
Senior co-captain Kyle Grissom is USC’s only other returning All-American as part of Troy’s 200-yard freestyle relay. Junior diver Henry Fusaro is Troy’s lone returning 2018 Pac-12 champion (3-meter) and is a two-time NCAA Championships qualifier while senior Pac-12 butterfly finalist and veteran NCAA participant Alex Valente is back, too.
Salo brought in a talented class of newcomers to bolster the Trojans’ lineup, led by Swedish distance freestyler Victor Johansson, freestyler Alexei Sancov and freshman butterflyer and medley swimmer Ariel Spektor.
Joining Hansson as co-captain for the women’s team is senior Lily Dubroff while senior Billy Monjay joins Grissom as men’s team co-captain.
