Ranking the Classes: #5-Auburn

Auburn isn’t capturing the huge classes it did when they were on their run of NCAA titles, but this year’s group is certainly outdoes last year’s #7 class.  Good thing too because the departures of Kara Denby, Kristen Hastrup and Emily Kukors leave big holes.

Stephanie Horner will go a long ways towards filling those holes.  She’ll represent her native Canada in the 400 free in Beijing before returning to Auburn.  Collegiately, she’s capable of finishing in the top eight of the 200 and 500 free, butterflies and IM’s.  In the strokes, Micah Lawrence ranks third in the 200 and eighth in the 100 breaststrokes and Kelsey Winters is top ten in the short fly.  The group of incoming sprinters isn’t long, but their names are.  Ariana Vanderpool-Wall and Jennifer VonJouanne give the Tigers four prospects ranked in the top sixty with Leigh Hendry adding depth.

A rival coach’s perspective: “They’re talented but small in numbers.  If they can still sign a diver or pick up someone mid-year, they’d be in my top three.”