Well, I'm finally starting the 2019 recruiting topic after months of discussing them on the 2018 recruiting topic. Thanks to UAC and tedbear for nominating me, this is really exciting haha. 2019 is an extremely important year for recruiting, as we are losing 3/4 of the Dream Team (Kathleen, Amy, and Katie), as well as Jenna.
The class of 2019 is nowhere as strong as the 2018 class, but still has some solid prospects. I'm thinking that if we land 6 solid recruits, it'll be solid. I haven't finalized my list yet, but here's three that are definitely on my list. I'll be discussing some more prospects later on in this topic because I don't want to overwhelm people.
Needs:
- Back (we're pretty weak beyond Kathleen & Amy)
- Fly (esp. 200 fly)
- Sprint free (to replace Amy on relays)
- IM (Keaton seems to be the only one apart from Kathleen who can make NCAAs)
- Mid-distance free (Katie was a huge help w/ the 500 free, and Kathleen, Amy, and Katie are a huge part of the 800 free relay)
- Of course, our usual weaknesses: Breast, distance free/IM, diving
Recruits:
She's been talked about multiple times, but my #1 pick for a Cal recruit would be Isabel Ivey (#1 Nat, #1 FL). She's a pretty darn reasonable choice, as she's friends w/ multiple Cal swimmers/commits, such as Cassidy and Reese, and she also follows both the men and womens' teams on Instagram. She's extremely versatile, with her best stroke being free, and her second best stroke being...uh...basically everything. Versatility is something Teri values, so I can easily see Teri targeting her as a recruit.
My second recruit would be Zoie Hartman (#5 Nat, #1 CA). She's a local, and an excellent breaststroker, and is great in freestyle and IM. She performed extremely well at Junior Nats this weekend, and dropped from a 1:00.5 to a 59.8 and went from a 2:11.8 to a 2:08.6, making her the superior all-around breaststroker (as compared to 2019 IU commit Emily Weiss). She's from the same team as 2018 men's recruit Daniel O'Connell, who's coach is Ethan Hall, who is Natalie Coughlin's husband. Again, with the versatility thing.
For my third recruit, I struggled on whether I'd prefer a local or a swimmer that we have a connection with (Carmel Swim Club), but ultimately, for my third recruit, it'd be Chloe Clark (#17 Nat, #3 CA). You might be wondering as to why I chose a "lower-ranked" recruit, it's because of her versatility. I tried to find the most versatile recruits, and I think that a lot of the distance swimmers (Donohoe, Heckman, Sims) are ranked too high, especially when they can only swim 500/1000/1650 free (I'm a fan of distance freestylers, don't get me wrong.) However, Chloe is pretty versatile, with her weakest stroke being butterfly, in which she still has a solid time of 55.15, though her best event is IM.
The class of 2019 is nowhere as strong as the 2018 class, but still has some solid prospects. I'm thinking that if we land 6 solid recruits, it'll be solid. I haven't finalized my list yet, but here's three that are definitely on my list. I'll be discussing some more prospects later on in this topic because I don't want to overwhelm people.
Needs:
- Back (we're pretty weak beyond Kathleen & Amy)
- Fly (esp. 200 fly)
- Sprint free (to replace Amy on relays)
- IM (Keaton seems to be the only one apart from Kathleen who can make NCAAs)
- Mid-distance free (Katie was a huge help w/ the 500 free, and Kathleen, Amy, and Katie are a huge part of the 800 free relay)
- Of course, our usual weaknesses: Breast, distance free/IM, diving
Recruits:
She's been talked about multiple times, but my #1 pick for a Cal recruit would be Isabel Ivey (#1 Nat, #1 FL). She's a pretty darn reasonable choice, as she's friends w/ multiple Cal swimmers/commits, such as Cassidy and Reese, and she also follows both the men and womens' teams on Instagram. She's extremely versatile, with her best stroke being free, and her second best stroke being...uh...basically everything. Versatility is something Teri values, so I can easily see Teri targeting her as a recruit.
My second recruit would be Zoie Hartman (#5 Nat, #1 CA). She's a local, and an excellent breaststroker, and is great in freestyle and IM. She performed extremely well at Junior Nats this weekend, and dropped from a 1:00.5 to a 59.8 and went from a 2:11.8 to a 2:08.6, making her the superior all-around breaststroker (as compared to 2019 IU commit Emily Weiss). She's from the same team as 2018 men's recruit Daniel O'Connell, who's coach is Ethan Hall, who is Natalie Coughlin's husband. Again, with the versatility thing.
For my third recruit, I struggled on whether I'd prefer a local or a swimmer that we have a connection with (Carmel Swim Club), but ultimately, for my third recruit, it'd be Chloe Clark (#17 Nat, #3 CA). You might be wondering as to why I chose a "lower-ranked" recruit, it's because of her versatility. I tried to find the most versatile recruits, and I think that a lot of the distance swimmers (Donohoe, Heckman, Sims) are ranked too high, especially when they can only swim 500/1000/1650 free (I'm a fan of distance freestylers, don't get me wrong.) However, Chloe is pretty versatile, with her weakest stroke being butterfly, in which she still has a solid time of 55.15, though her best event is IM.
She's also friends w/ 2018 baby bear Alex Sumner, so there's that. She's followed by UGA, USC, Michigan, UVA, UofA, UNC, and our own coach Dunleavy, which means that she's on their radar, even if we're not on hers 
I'm thinking she's a UVA lean.
(middle)
(right)
