Two Davis Arden Racing Team swimmers have committed to East Coast colleges. Claire Pinson will swim for Harvard* while Alex Kapphahn will head to Wesleyan.
Claire Pinson is a senior at Sacramento Country Day High School. She notched two second-place finishes at the 2014 CIF Sac-Joaquin Sectional Meet, going 4:52.01 in the 500 free and 2:03.88 in the 200 IM. Her best SCY events are:
1000y free: 10:02.66
500y free: 4:52.01
200y free: 1:50.80
200y IM: 2:03.88
400y IM: 4:23.24
200y fly: 2:03.00
Pinson is versatile enough to be able to fill in where Harvard has holes. Already her 500 free is A-final material for Ivy League Championships, while just about all her other events would place her in the B-finals. Pinson will join fellow recruits Brittany Usinger, Holly Christensen, Megan Popp, and Sonia Wang in the class of 2019.
Alex Kapphahn attends Rio Americano High School. He was fourth in the 200 IM (1:55.96) and fifth in the 100 back (51.77) at the 2014 CIF Sac-Joaquin Sectional Meet.
200y IM: 1:54.01
400y IM: 4:05.74
50y back: 24.31
100y back: 51.34
200y back: 1:53.05
100y free: 47.15
200y free: 1:43.54
Kapphahn is a huge get for Wesleyan; he will add a lot to the Cardinals’ bench. He would have been the fastest Wesleyan entrant in the 200 IM at 2014 NESCAC Championships by 2.5 seconds, and would have been right at the A/B-final cutoff. His 400 IM, moreover, would have put him in the A-final. Wesleyan will be able to choose where they need him most. Besides the IMs, Kapphahn would have been the Cardinals’ top scorer in the 100/200 back and 100/200 free, and would have made B-finals in each event.
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*DISCLAIMER: Pinson has not yet been officially accepted to Harvard. As is true with all Ivy League schools, Harvard’s Admission Office will not send its acceptance letter until the beginning of December, along with those of all Early Action candidates. The procedure for a recruited athlete like Pinson is for Admissions to review her transcript and SAT scores, “support (her) application for admission in the fall,” issue a Likely Letter, then offer her acceptance into the class of 2019.