The Cal women’s swimming & diving team focused on its own back yard while filling also its needs with the 2016-17 recruiting class that was announced Wednesday by head coach Teri McKeever.
Four of the seven newest Bears, each of whom signed a National Letter of Intent on Wednesday, hail from the state of California. Junior National Team members Courtney Mykkanen of North Tustin and Chenoa Devine of Davis will begin their Cal careers in the fall along with fellow Californians Maddie Murphy of Orinda and Aislinn Light of Irvine.
Keaton Blovand of Lake Oswego, Oregon is also joining the Bears along with Anina Lund of Purchase, N.Y. and Alexa Buckley of Mountainside, N.J.
Mykkanen, Murphy and Light all have several relatives who attended Cal. Mykkanen’s father, John, was an All-American swimmer at Cal who won a Silver Medal in the 400-meter freestyle at the 1984 Summer Olympics.
“A lot of these girls have connections to Cal,” McKeever said. “We really wanted to get swimmers from California to get back to our roots.”
Mykkanen was a member of the U.S. Junior National Team from 2012-13 and competed in the Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China in 2014. Devine has qualified for the 2016 Olympic Trials in the 400 free, 800 free and 400 individual medley.
Murphy has qualified for the Olympic Trials in the 100 butterfly and won the CIF state championship in the 100 fly at Carondelet High School. Light has been a NISCA High School All-American throughout her career at Mater Dei High School.
Blovand has also qualified for the 2016 Olympic Trials, and it will be her second trip to the event. In 2012, she was the youngest swimmer to participate in the Olympic Trials at the age of 13. Lund swam in the 2014 Summer Nationals in the 800 and 1,500 free while Buckley was a qualifier for both the Junior Nationals and Winter Nationals.
“We definitely wanted to recruit girls this year that would fill some holes that we had,” McKeever said. “We needed some certain types of student-athletes, and we definitely accomplished that.”
The seven newest Golden Bears will begin their Cal careers in the fall of 2016.
