Kat Wickham, a distance freestyler from Palm Springs, and Maddie Meisel, a freestyle and butterfly specialist from Long Beach, have both committed to swim for the University of Utah.
“What separated Utah for me from other schools — the coaches.” –Kat Wickham (photo: Anne Lepesant/archives)
Kat Wickham swims for Piranha Swim Team and Palm Springs High School. She is the reigning CIF-SS Division II champion in the 200 free where she went 1:50.36 to claim victory, and she has long course Junior National times in the 400m and 800m frees and swims a 17-low mile. But unlike many distance specialists Wickham has proven to be an asset on the shorter relays as well. At CIF she split a 23-mid at the end of the medley relay and a 51-mid anchoring the 400 free relay.
Kat told SwimSwam she chose Utah because, “it’s a great school, beautiful location, great coaching staff and I loved the team. It felt like home.”
Maddie Meisel swims with the JCC Waves in Irvine and Millikan High School in Long Beach. She has an impressive 100 back and 100 fly but is probably strongest in the middle distances. Her 200 meter fly time of 2:17.65 qualifies her for Winter Nationals, and she has been as fast as 1:51 and 4:53 in the 200 and 500 yard frees, respectively.
“Overall, I felt like this was the school where I could spend the next four years of my life.” –Maddie Meisel about joining the Utes
“I really knew that Utah was the school for me because as I was leaving my recruiting trip I already felt like I was leaving my team. I LOVED the team spirit, the campus, and the fact that it will be a different experience from the Southern California I am used to. And since it’s in the Pac12, there are tons of opportunities as an athlete.”