There must have been something in the water at Southern cal this year. Actually, to listen to Jordan Danny say it, it was something on the water: “On my recruiting trip to USC, the team had an evening beach bonfire. It was at this bonfire that I had my "moment" and I realized that I wanted to become a Trojan.”
Whatever the case, Dave Salo and crew brought in a class that gives them talent, potential, and - with the addition of transfers Lyndsay DePaul and Presley Bard - experience. There’s not a top-ten recruit in the bunch, but there’s nearly five of the top fifty and eight of the top one-hundred.
That might be why Salo himself isn’t sure their class would be ranked number one. “We still need to strengthen our numbers in the shorter sprint events,” but he’s excited about the type of swimmer coming in this fall. “An athlete coming to USC needs to be prepared to accept the ‘impossible’ as probable,” he explains. That’s the kind of mindset that helped USC to an unlikely a pair of Gold Medals in Beijing.
The Trojans didn’t have to go far to find their class. Nine of the twelve signees come from in-state including top-20 recruits Jessica Schmidt and Yumi So. So broke former Trojan Olympian Kaitlin Sandeno’s SCS 200 fly record with her third place finish at December’s USA Swimming Short Course National Championships.
No single swimmer could replace Soni, so the Trojans went out and picked up two of the best. Jessica Schmitt was an Olympic trials semi-finalist while Danny picked up her first trials cut as a 15-year old at the JEI. Both have their sights set on continuing the standard set by Soni and crew, with Danny aiming to go sub-minute her first year.
Haley Anderson arrives as the second-best distance recruit in the country behind Florida-bound Corrine Showalter. Anderson offers a more versatility as an IM’er and flyer, and surely left a burning Busch when she opted not to follow her sister to Arizona. Laguna Beach’s Chelsea Wild will back up Anderson in the distance events.
Katie Nolan travelled the longest way to get to Los Angeles. The nine-time Pennsylvania state champion will push So in the fly while also giving USC some much needed sprintability as will Illinois State Champion Kate Shumway and Honolulu’s Christel Simms (who represented the Philippines in Beijing).
Assistant Coach Jeremy Kipp worked his Santa Barbara ties to land natives LoLo Blair and Lindsay Parrish. Both will make an immediate Pac 10 impression and have the potential to do more in March – especially with Blair’s sunny “There’s pretty much no way you can go to USC and not get faster” approach.
CollegeSwimming.com Mid-Major All-American, all-everything Lyndsay DePaul arrives from UC-Irvine with NCAA-caliber experience as does Indiana transfer and Trials finalist Presley Bard. The pair will be expected to build on SC’s ninth-place finish of last year. More than that, however, they’ll have to offer much needed experience to this large, talented, and now highly-touted group of youngsters.
| Schmitt, Jessica | 76.53 | 17 | North Coast Aquatics | |
| So, Yumi | 75.68 | 18 | Crescenta Valley, CA | Swim Pasadena |
| Nolan, Katie | 74.64 | 24 | Hershey, PA | Hershey Aquatic Club |
| Danny, Jordan | 72.25 | 32 | Stevenson Ranch, CA | Canyons Aquatic Club |
| DePaul, Lyndsay | 69.09 | 50 | Orange, CA | Transfer: UC-Irvine |
| Anderson, Haley | 68.89 | 52 | Granite Bay, CA | Sierra Marlins Swim Team |
| Shumway, Kate | 67.79 | 59 | Winnetka, IL | New Trier Swim Club |
| Simms, Christel | 66.09 | 73 | Honolulu, HI | Hawaii Swimming Club |
| Bard, Presley | 61.16 | 121 | Napa, CA | Transfer: Indiana |
| Parrish, Lindsay | 60.38 | 131 | Santa Barbara, CA | Santa Barbara Swim Club |
| Wild, Chelsea | 57.57 | 183 | Laguna Beach, CA | Irvine Novaquatics |
| Blair, LoLo | 51.03 | 275 | Santa Barbara, CA | Santa Barbara Swim Club |
| Shiota, Lili | New York, NY |
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