Swimming signs four for 2011-2012 season
April 6, 2011
Corvallis, Ore. - The Oregon State women's swim team has signed four swimmers for the 2011-12 season as announced by head coach Larry Liebowitz.
The signed swimmers are: Alli Gillespie (Huntington Beach, Calif.), Shelby Webber (Huntington Beach, Calif.), Dakota Bloch (Atlanta, GA), and Delise Batiza (San Ramon, Calif.).
"All four are very good athletes and they are also very good students," Liebowitz said. "They really are going to provide a lot of depth in the freestyle events for our team. Two of them are distance swimmers and two of them are middle distance swimmers and they can go pretty good from the 50 to the 100 to the 200."
Webber and Gillespie swam on the same club team, West Coast Swimming. Webber has a best time of 24.90 in the 50-yard freestyle, 51.36 in the 100 freestyle, and a 1:52.82 in the 200 freestyle. Gillespie has a best time of 24.02 in the 50 freestyle and a 51.39 in the 100 freestyle. "I'm really excited for next year and can't wait to get to know all of the girls." Gillespie said.
Bloch comes from Brookwood High School and swam for coach Chris Davis for Swim Atlanta club team. She has best times of 53.09 in the 100 freestyle, 1:53.28 in the 200 freestyle, and 4:58.67 in the 500 freestyle. "I signed with Oregon State because it felt like a home away from home when spending time with the team and that's exactly what I wanted," Bloch said.
"Gillespie and Webber can stretch up to the 500 and Bloch and Batiza can go from the 200 all the way up to the mile," Liebowitz added. "It's really going to provide some great freestyle depth for our team and fill some holes. I see them as really coming in and bolstering the middle part of our team in the freestyle events which are really important."
Batiza swam for coach Paul Stafford for the Terrapins Swim Club. Her best times include 1:50.09 in the 200 freestyle, 4:50.35 in the 500 freestyle, 9:55.43 in the 1,000 freestyle, and 16:54.32 in the 1,650 freestyle.
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"I couldn't be more excited with this group," Liebowitz said. "I'm really excited and looking forward to having these young ladies join our team and help us make some big strides forward.
