Freestyler Jessica Hodgson from the Bolles School in Jacksonville, Florida has verbally committed to Auburn this weekend.
With perhaps the biggest recruit on the men’s side of the pool, Bolles club teamer Caeleb Dressel, still looming, the Auburn Tigers have at least established that they have a positive relationship with Sergio Lopez’s team.
Hodgson is a very good 100-200 freestyler, with bests of 50.95/1:48.29. The latter of those times made her the runner-up at last year’s Florida 1A High School State Championship meet, though a stumble in prelims of the 100 left her to win the B-Final in that race.
Her best flat-start in the 50 free is just a 24.36, but that’s a bit misleading to her true speed. The Bolles girls’ 200 free relay DQ’ed in finals at the state meet, and with her best 50 free coming at Winter Nationals, just a few weeks after the Florida State meet, she was either carrying her taper through or on her second taper in under a month at her last, best, opportunity to get a good time in the 50.
When she came to Bolles from her native Thailand, Sergio Ropez raved about her in his blog, saying that she was a 2:02 in the 200 free in long course. It took her a few swims to get used to yards (she was as slow as 1:59 in the 200 yard free in the fall), but once she caught on, she got very fast very quickly. Expect her yards times to really get better as a senior when she settles in, and this could turn into one of the steals of the class for Brett Hawke and the Tigers.
She is a member of Thailand’s National Team, which in the least gives Auburn another swimmer with international experience and another possible Auburn name on the radar of the 2016 Olympics.
There are currently 4 Bolles alums on the Auburn roster, and Hodgson is the erd in the class along with Josh Booth, and McKenna Debever.
Remember when Auburn used to recruit and sign the blue chippers when Marsh was there?! Now we know why they have slid down to 13th last year. Doesn’t look like they will move up to the top 5 soon! They aren’t getting the same caliber athlete as UGA, Stanford, Cal, USC, etc.
They used to when Marsh was there.
Awesome! Congrats to Auburn and the Hodgson family!
Exciting addition to the Auburn team! Congrats to all!