After a banner year that saw the Northwestern Wildcats send a pair of women to the NCAA Championships (and very nearly sneak in a relay as well), head coach Jimmy Tierney has done a great job of parlaying the successes into a standout recruiting class.
The Wildcats picked up a big one early when they got a verbal from Carmel's Lacey Locke (read about that here) which effectively knocked over the first domino in this year's class. And though they were a bit quiet for a few weeks there-after, the class exploded again in the last week with a ton of verbal commitments. The class is now very heavy on middle-distance freestylers, though there are some very good sprinters in the mix as well.
Among those is a reach overseas to Singapore for a verbal from Annika Winsnes. Winsnes is truly an international swimmer: she lives in Singapore, but holds dual Dutch and Norwegian citizenship. Further, she's truly a fantastic sprinter, having won the Singapore Age Group Championship for 15-17′s in March with a 26.20 in the long course 50 free (which converts to around a 23.0 in yards). She also has a 57.1 in the long course 100 free (around a 50-mid in yards), and a 28.1 in the 50 fly (that's good).
She and Locke give some young firepower to the Northwestern 200 medley relay that is probably one piece away from looking at NCAA qualification in 2015.
Among other members of the class are Melissa Postoll: another impressive recruit from the Stingrays in Georgia. She's also a sprinter with bests of 24.51 and 52.26 in the 50 and 100 yard freestyles. Northwestern will probably count on her most, though, to bolster their 800 free relay; she comes into her senior year of high school with a 1:52.79 in that race, and with some small improvements could could be a contributor there as well.
Megan Purdy from the Boulder City Henderson Swim Team should definitely have a spot on the Northwestern 800 free relay; at December's Winter Juniors, she led off the team's 800 free relay in 1:50.06. That time probably isn't enough to score at Big Ten's immediately, but if she can knock a second-or-more off of that time by the end of her freshman year with the ‘Cats, it could push the relay into the top-half of the 12-team conference. That certainly seems reasonable, given that she's dropped three seconds already in the last year.
Purdy is good through all of the freestyle races (4:52.5 in the 500), but her best event is probably the 200 fly with a 2:02.8.
Lauren Abruzzo had a breakout summer in long course; the Wildcats are counting on that carrying to yards.
Danielle Elliott from the Patriot Aquatic Club in Illinois is another middle-to-distance freestyler, with bests of 1:52.6/4:59.4 in the 200 and 500 freestyles. It will be curious to see which direction she ends up shifting, as her 1000 free of 10:15.13 seems to be her best, but isn't on the official Division I schedule. We tend to think she'll lean toward the shorter events, but only time will tell. Others in the class include:
- Ellen Stello, a 4:24.5 400 IM'er from Wisconsin
- Lacey Smith, another Coloradoan, who is a 1:50.75 in the 200 free
- Jackie Doyle from the Crown Canyon Sharks, a 56.8 100 yard backstroker.