Emily Martin of Academy Bullets Swim Club has committed to the University of Illinois and will make an immediate impact on their team. Martin specializes in all the distance staples, from freestyle to the 400 IM and the 200 fly. Her real trump card is the 1650 free, where her personal best is ten seconds faster than any Fighting Illini swimmer achieved last year:
- 1650 Freestyle: 16:38.50
- 200 free: 1:53.66
- 500 free: 4:56.17
- 200 fly – 2:04.96
- 400 IM – 4:27.01
Illinois finished just 12th out of 13 teams at last year’s B1G Championship, and individual scoring swims were few and far between. Martin’s 1650 would have scored at the meet and she could be the training partner junior Amelia Schilling, who finished 25th last year, needs to push her over the top.
It has been her dream for years to attend the University of Illinois and be a member of the Fighting Illini’s swim team – Coach Jeff Skeels, Academy Bullets
Martin competes for Illini Central High School in Mason City, Illinois – about 90 minutes west of Champaign. She finished 8th in the 500 free at last year’s Illinois State Championship meet, consistently one of the most competitive high school championships in the country.
She also had two scoring swims at last spring’s NCSA Meet in Orlando and finished 23rd in the 800 free at the summer edition in Indianapolis. Martin follows both her parents, who are both proud University of Illinois graduates. She plans to study agricultural accounting- a good choice considering University of Illinois was most recently ranked 11th in the world in the category of Agriculture and Forestry.
Congrats Emily! So proud of you!!!
I-L-L…I-N-I