Swede, Welsh and South African LSU-Bound

The LSU Swimming and Diving program added three student athletes during the spring recruiting period to bring the total number of signees to 13.  While the recent news surrounding LSU has regarded the dismissal of Amanda Kendall, this class continues to build a Tiger program that has developed quickly under head coach Dave Geyer.

“We are really excited to wrap up our recruiting season the way we have,” Swimming Geyer said. “We knew going into the spring that we were looking for athletes that can come in and make an impact with our program immediately. Adding these athletes to our fall signees brings a very large class to our women’s program that will add to the daily competition in our training environment. The additions to our men’s class add more depth to our very talented squad.”

The spring class is composed of two female swimmers and one male swimmer. They will join five female swimmers, three female divers and two male swimmers who signed in the fall period.

The 2012-13 recruiting class is expected to compete right off the bat this season.

Danielle Stirrat, a native of Llnaharry, Wales is a member of the Welsh National Squad training. She trained under Coach Dave Haller and the City of Cardiff Swimming. Stirrat will contribute in the backstroke and freestyle, and boasts recent long course meter bests and short course yard conversion bests of 1:03.37 (54.05) in the 100 meter back, 2:15.28 (1:55.93) in the 200 meter back, 2:02.43 (1:47.00) in the 200 meter free and 4:20.20 (4:49.34) in the 400 free.

Taryn MacKenzie, a native of Johannesburg, South Africa was the April 2010 South African National Champion in the 50 and 100 breaststroke and competed in the Junior Olympics in Singapore. She trained with coach Peter Williams and is a member of the Waterborn Swimming Club. Listed are MacKenzie’s recent bests in long course meters with the short course yard conversions, 32.45 (28.26) in the 50 meter breast, 1:11.14 (1:01.89) in the 100 meter breast and 2:35.74 (2:16.74) in the 200 meter breast.

Alexander Linge, hails from Linkoping, Sweden. He will arrive at LSU with recent short course meter times with short course yard conversions of 49.52 (44.32) in the 100 free, 1:49.85 (1:38.51) in the 200 free, 53.64 (48.06) in the 100 fly and 1:59.79 (1:47.33) in the 200 fly.

The class joins Cassie Weil (Hillsboro, Ore.), Sophie Weber (Folsom, Calif.), Gabe Rooker (Portland, Ore.), Grant Grenfell (Baton Rouge, La.), Megan Cox (Scottsdale, Ariz.), Jessie James (Albany, Ore.), Caley Oquist (Monitcello, Minn.), Stacey Stanfield (Jacksonville, Fla.), Allie Alter (New Albany, Ohio) and Isabelle “Izzy” Choquehuanca (Laguna Nigel, Calif.).