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Home turf recruiting is essential to any state university, so Virginia Tech must be glad to pick up Caroline de Jager and Jenna Beattie after a recent recruiting weekend. Beattie, who trains at Coast Guard Blue Dolphins, can contribute immediately at the conference level. Her best performances come the longer the distance:
- 500 freestyle: 4:55.29
- 1000 freestyle: 10:12.18
- 1650 freestyle: 16:59.56
- 200 freestyle: 1:51.82
Her 1650 would have been a scoring swim at last year’s ACC Championship, an event where the Hokies had just one scorer last year. She was a state 3A runner-up in the 500 freestyle for Lafayette High School last year. She’ll need to sharpen up her 500 free, but she showed good improvement over the last year and should get a fighting chance in Blacksburg.
The Hokies are banking on the rapid improvement of de Jager, who swims for Williamsburg Aquatic club. Her current times put her a ways outside of ACC scoring swims, but she has shown tremendous progression over the last year:
- 100 breaststroke: 1:05.96
- 200 breaststroke: 2:22.43
- 50 breaststroke 30.91
Prior to the 2014-2015 season, de Jager had personal bests of 1:09, 2:27 in the two contestable breaststroke races. She was state 2A runner-up last year in the 100 breaststroke, in a time (1:09.04 SCM) that also suggests she is even faster than her SCY best. Prior to the construction of the eight lane, 50m Christiansburg Aquatic center in 2010, Virginia Tech might not have taken a chance on a swimmer like de Jager, but now they have the space and resources to see whether her curve continues and makes her an ACC contender.
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