October 22, 2007
The 2007-08 swimming season has just kicked off and the Maroons are poised for another record setting year. The women’s team returns a number of talented swimmers that are looking to lead the team into the top of the UAA standings and break even more Chicago Swimming records.
Leading the way for the Maroons will be sophomore Cassie O’Neill (Roseburg, OR) who is coming off a very successful first year where she placed top-3 in both breaststoke events at UAAs and finaled in the 200 IM as well. This year she looks to once again compete for a UAA Title and qualify for NCAAs.
The women’s team has excellent leadership again this season with seniors Blake Langdon (Anchorage, AK) and Ellie McNeil (Chicago, IL) serving as co-captains for the second straight year. Langdon will also add some needed speed in sprint free and back while McNeil looks to contribute big points again in the mid-distance and distance free events.
Junior butterflier Rachel Zarnke (Rockford, IL) and sophomore backstroker Alicia Bushman (Geen Bay, WI) both come into this season hungry to break school records and score top-8 at UAAs in their events while Kathie Ang (Montclair, NJ) gears up to make an impact in the sprint fly, back, and free events. Zarnke, Bushman and Ang will be counted on to continue their success from last year and score in multiple events at UAAs again.
A big part of our team success this year will be due to one of the deepest and most talented incoming freshmen classes in the history of the program. Ellie Elgamal (Elgamal, Ellie) comes in as one of the top butterflies in the UAA and will have an excellent shot of bring home multiple UAAs titles and becoming a Division III NCAA All-American. Local Sarah Wynn (Wheaton, IL) will give a much needed to boost to our distance and medley events and also will be a force at UAAs and a potential NCAA qualifier.
Our sprint free and fly events will be much stronger this year with the addition of Charlotte Richman (Hoboken, NJ) and Emma Stanger (Worthington, OH) while another Southern California native Katherine Leonard (Carslbad, CA) will be a contributor and conference scorer in the 100 and 200 backstrokes.
First-year Catie Cottle (Tallahassee, FL) looks to be in mid-season form and will make some noise in the distance events while classmates Lauren Battaglia (Barrington, IL) and Margot Luedke (Sheboygan, WI) will add some much needed depth in the breaststrokes behind O’Neill.
I can hardly contain my excitement as our first competition of the year is quickly approaching. Our first two meets are away this year; swimming at Wheaton Saturday, Oct. 27 and at IIT on Friday, Nov. 2. Both schools have very strong programs so it will be a challenge for the women’s team to start off 2-0 again this year.
GO MAROONS! |
