Rhodes head swimming and diving coach Charlie Boehme announced today the addition of twelve women and six men to the Lynx swimming and diving family for the 2014-2015 season.
The eighteen newcomers form the biggest recruiting classes in the program's history. The class consists of seventeen incoming freshmen and one transfer student with the student-athletes coming to Rhodes from eleven different states spanning coast to coasts from California to Virginia.
The Rhodes men's swimming and diving team welcomes six new members to a roster that boasts only one senior. Simon Boles and Max Miller highlight the 2014 recruiting class with opportunities to final in multiple events at the SAA Championships. Boles looks to shine for the Lynx in the back (54.49/ 1:58.16) and IM (1:59.20/ 4:18.18,) while Miller gives the Lynx a dangerous option in the middle and distance freestyle events (4:54.82.) Miller will be joined by another pair of talented freestylers in Aaron Romanowski (5:06.77/ 17:48.23) and Mitchell Koenig (1:55.62/ 5:13.01.)
Chip Ogles joins the team as a sophomore after spending a year at the University of Arkansas. Ogles will have the opportunity to compete for the fly leg of the medley relays, and has the ability to contribute immediately for the Lynx. The class is rounded out by Shelton Clark who capped his high school career with a very strong breaststroke split (32.49) on Hume Fogg's 200 Medley Relay at the 2014 Tennessee High School Championships.
The Rhodes women's swimming and diving team welcomes twelve new members to a team that placed second at the 2014 Southern Athletic Association Championships. The class looks to fill holes left by a talented 2014 graduating class, and will add depth in some of the Lynx's strongest areas.
Virginia Carr leads a deep group of talented breaststrokers who have a unique opportunity to work towards replacing three 2014 SAA Championship finalists. Carr capped a banner senior season with a 1:04.85 100 breaststroke at the NSCA Junior National championships, after setting the Arkansas High School State Record of 1:05.07 at the state championship meet. Emily Ellison (1:11.82) and Hannah Hornsey (1:12.51) will join the program after wildly successful senior years, and are set up nicely to compete for spots in the 2015 SAA Championship finals. Katie Gleason will also join the group, giving the Lynx one of the deepest stables of breaststrokers in the Association.
Emily Wozena (1:00.01) and Olivia Burchett (1:00.28) lead a very talented core of flyers who will add to a butterfly group that returns All-SAA flyers Ann Griffin and Olivia Muehlberger. Joining Wozena and Burchett, is local product Taylor Treas, who showed huge potential with a 28.70 butterfly split as a part of the Houston High School 200 Medley Relay at the 2014 Tennessee High School Championships. Kira Romeo will also join the already deep fly group.
Victoria Norris (2:0074/ 5:17.65) and Jillian Franks (25.90/ 57.05) lead a strong group of freestylers that look to bolster what is perhaps the deepest group in the Rhodes program. Jordan Ankersen (2:15.80) will look to continue the success she saw in a great senior season, and Anya Tipton will look to add to the team's depth in freestyle and backstroke.
Coach Boehme is very excited to bring these student-athletes into the program for a multitude of reasons.
"For me, the most exciting thing about this group is not their talent, which they obviously have, but the team-first attitude that they already seem to have adopted," commented Boehme. "They bought into the way the program operates, and bought into the program's goals very early on in the recruiting process. They're already constantly chatting with each other, and I can't wait for them to bring their positive energy to the program. It won't take long for this group to put their stamp on the program."
