Chip Kline takes his recruiting seriously. On June 30th he needed to get to bed early. It wasn’t even 9:00 pm. Now Chip isn’t old enough to fall asleep before the evening weather, but he does know that the early bird gets the worm and it’s the reason why the Cavaliers are positioned to improve on last year’s 8th place finish at NCAA’s.
UVA started its class by securing the best swimmer in the state of Virignia, Rachel Naurath. She’s good, and she’s versatile having won every freestyle event over 50 yards at this spring’s NCSA Junior Nationals. Of course for that 50, there’s Emily Lloyd of neighboring Maryland. She, along with Aussie backstroker Charlotte Clarke ease the departure of Mei Christensen. Christensen was at the leading edge of Virginia’s resurgence and won’t easily be replaced but when you consider that these three NCAA-caliber swimmers join a team that returns a dozen previous qualifiers. The sheer numbers show that UVA has returned as an ‘in’ destination for some of swimming’s deepest talent pools. Just ask the trio of Floridians, Hillary Peterson, Dana Nessler and Riley Flanagan, migrating North this fall. Its one thing for a team to raid a state here or there, but Kline’s early-bird approach has them flocking to Charlottesville.
|
#1
Stanford #2 Arizona #3 Virginia #4 Auburn #5 Tennessee #6 California #7 USC #8 Florida #9 Texas #10 Ohio St #11 SMU #12 Louisville #13 Princeton #14 LSU #15 Georgia #16 Indiana #17 Arkansas #18 UNC #19 Alabama #20 Penn St #21 Duke #22 SDSU #23 Texas A&M #24 Arizona St |
