Once again UT has signed another stellar class and once again we find ourselves wondering where John Trembley finds all of these guys. It doesn’t matter if you come from the fjords of Scandinavia, the hollers of Tennessee, big club powers, summer league teams, a bustling city on the eastern seaboard, a sleepy village in Paraguay, if you’ve got raw and untapped talent, John Trembley work to make you a Volunteer.
| Christoffer Wallin arrives in Knoxville fresh off his Swedish record in the 400 IM. Wallin’s strength in SCM kept him under many people’s radar, but makes him ideally suited for collegiate swimming. The same holds true for Norwegian Oysten Hetland. He’s a sprint specialist and brother of Alex Hetland another UT (in this case the University of Tampa) though JT has big plans for him.
"No offense to his brother Alex, but we believe Oystein will be a better swimmer.”
That’s saying something considering Alex’s 23.1 stands as one of the breaststroke splits known to man. Tennessee has a trio of breaststrokers coming in. Zach Burnett, Drew Craig, Renato Pronto are all good, but they’re not yet 23.1 good.
Tennessee classes traditionally include a sprinter or two and often tap local connections. This class is no exception with the later helping account for Burnett (who swims for former Vol Stphen Fortney), Craig (whose brother won the SEC title in the 200 breast) and Alex Ward (who trains under former UT All-American Jim Rumbaugh). It also includes Troy Tillman for whom enrollment at UT is a “dream come true” and Brazilian up-and-comer Ramom Mello who Trembley argues is, " the finest 18-year-old sprinter in the world."
The class also gets a boost from mid-year enrollee Clint Johnson, Samuel Rairden who sat out 2010 and redshirt freshman Sam Peterson back from injury. All the Vols need now is a similar return for assistant coach Joe Hendee as he battles brain cancer. Knowing what we know about UT, nothing would surprise us.
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