Pac-12 Champion Isabelle Odgers to Stay at USC for 5th Year

Isabelle Odgers has announced that she will be staying at USC to use her 5th year of eligibility this fall.

Odgers swam her first four years all with USC. This past season at the 2022 Pac-12 Championships, Odgers won the 200 breaststorke (2:06.42), was fourth in the 100 breast (59.72), and was sixth in the 200 IM (1:55.86).

Odgers also represented USC at the 2022 NCAA Championships. There she was slightly off her times from conferences as she swam a 2:08.18 to finish 17th in the 200 breast, a 1:00.48 for 37th in the 100 breast, and a 1:57.32 for 34th in the 200 IM. Her times from Pac-12s would have earned her spots in the A final of the 200 breast and the B final of the 200 IM.

Her best SCY times are:

• 100 breast: 59.72
• 200 breast: 2:06.42
• 200 IM: 1:55.86

Athletes were allowed an extra year of eligibility due to COVID-19 during the 2020-2021 season. Many athletes took this extra year this season, but the number is expected to fall over the next few years.

The biggest difference between this season’s fifth years and future season’s is the scholarship cap. Women’s swimming is allowed  14 total scholarships per team. This season, 5th year seniors didn’t count toward that cap unless they transfered. In future seasons, 5th year seniors will count against the cap, until the waiver expires. This means that Odger’s scholarship next season will count towards the 14.

This shift in policy for future seasons means that we will likely see fewer swimmers taking advantage of the opportunity.

The return of Odgers is huge for USC as USC only finished 26 points behind Cal. Odgers was the teams biggest points scorer at Pac-12s as she scored a total of 82 points. Odgers is the third announced fifth year for the USC women as diver Carolina Sculti will be transferring from Stanford to USC and swimmer Elise Garcia will be transferring from Cal to USC.