On Thursday, two-time 200 free NCAA champion Taylor Ruck confirmed to SwimSwam that she was finished with NCAA swimming, even though she said she still had one year of NCAA eligibility remaining. In addition, she also said she was unsure of whether she would continue training with Stanford, her college team, leading up to the Paris 2024 Olympics.
Ruck’s confirmation comes despite the fact that she is listed on Stanford’s 2023-24 women’s swimming roster as a graduate student. She competed during the 2018-19, 2021-22, and 2022-23 NCAA seasons, but redshirted both the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons in preparation for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics that had been postponed to 2021. Last season, Ruck was listed as a “redshirt” senior on the Stanford roster.
When Ruck took her Tokyo redshirts, she had trained in Canada rather than at Stanford.
At both the 2022 and 2023 NCAA Championships, Ruck was the national champion in the 200-yard free. She scored 20 individual points for Stanford, which made her the third-highest scorer on her team. She also swam on Stanford’s 800 free relay, 200 free relay, 400 free relay, and 400 medley relay. With Ruck gone, Stanford will be missing their top three scorers from 2023 NCAAs during the 2023-24 NCAA season. Top scorer Claire Curzan recently transferred to the University of Virginia, while Torri Huske, the second-highest scorer, is taking an Olympic redshirt.
Ruck recently competed at the 2023 World Championships, where she swam on Canada’s women’s 400 free relay that finished seventh, as well as prelims of the mixed 400 free relay. She did not qualify to compete in any individual events, having skipped Canadian Trials this April due to a broken hand.
If you really want to know why an athlete might leàve, read the article below. It is written by a recent student, it’s both illuminating and depressing, and also missed some key pieces of context; the original round of crackdowns began with the publishing of college rankings by U.S. News, which including reinstating the F. (Until the end of the 1994-95 school year, you couldn’t fail a class. At the end of your final, you would indicate the lowest grade you would accept in the class, and if you scored below that, the class simply didn’t appear on your transcript.) It was meant to encourage academic exploration without penalizing students for trying something particularly difficult or outside of their wheelhouse,… Read more »
I like thank you.
“Stanford’s new social order offers a peek into the bureaucrat’s vision for America. It is a world without risk, genuine difference, or the kind of group connection that makes teenage boys want to rent bulldozers and build islands. It is a world largely without unencumbered joy; without the kind of cultural specificity that makes college, or the rest of life, particularly interesting.“
It seems like many people are lamenting the loss of several key players from the Stanford swim team. This probably isn’t good but are swimmers that are staying chopped liver? Seems to me as a whole, Stanford has a very good team with nothing to be ashamed of and I would bet that they would probably place in the top ten even without these swimmers. They are definitely in better shape than my alma mater:)
From the 2023 NCAA Division I Women’s Swimming & Diving Championships:
60 individual points remain
123 individual points departed
Stanford women’s 4 x 100 yard medley relay has been completely decimated:
Curzan, Raab, Huske, Ruck
Nevermind the departures from Stanford women’s 4 x 50 yard freestyle relay and Stanford women’s 4 x 100 yard freestyle relay:
Curzan, Huske, Ruck
Lots of depth! They will be fine.
they’re definitely not worse off than any of their academic peer institutions like the top Ivies but its like a complete 180 compared to themselves from 5-6 years ago
Stand by for a very good year from the ladies in the classroom, in the pool and with their lives! Hopefully Taylor enjoys her time training at home and comes back to the Farm this fall. An all time great Card!
Hope Torri can push herself in practice. Gonna be really lonely out there
She even said on the SS podcast recently she was probably going to be moving in with Claire Curzan after he first year, thay was obviously before she left, feel bad for her but she’ll probably be leaving as well I imagine
Have you talked to her? If not stick to facts.
Stanford badly needs a new AD. Bernard Muir has been a very expensive mistake for the Farm. He overpaid David Shaw for at least 3 terrible years, and was content to keep doing so, probably indefinitely. He tried to cut 11 sports he didn’t value, and quickly discovered how loud and deep-pocketed the alumni can be, not to mention the number of Olympic feeder programs he tried to eliminate. He seemed to have no inkling nor any strategy for what to do if any Pac-12 members left, nor any solutions to the total lack of a broadcast rights deal for the conference. He needs to be replaced immediately. The most succcessful sports program in NCAA history has no realistic conference… Read more »
Weird tangent on drinking in the dorms. Not sure how that contributes to the decline of the athletic department
The point may be that the AD has not done much to improve the athletic department and neither has the President. From the sounds of it, you can go to Stanford for the athletics and education, but you don’t get a “true” college experience.
There was a long story somewhere that Reeves is referring to that went deep into the cultural/experiential changes and restrictions that have been put upon the Stanford student experience – and not for the better. From the story, it seemed to be focused more and more on control in removing some of the fun – and occasionally less-than-desirable – experiences of college life.
This does impact the overall – and therefore athletic – experience.
Cal also needs a new AD. badly.
Stanford was 9th at NCAAs in 2021, but between COVID and the Olympics, they were hit harder than almost anyone that year (aside from schools that just punted on the season).
Stanford will be lucky to muster 125 points at the 2024 NCAA Division I Women’s Swimming & Diving Championships.
Oh my will you be shocked.
Her HS coach Kevin is nearby at Santa clara
She should go see Kevin.
Why did Coach Meehan take up residence in your head?
Has any one program suffered a monumental loss of talent as the Stanford Women’s NCAA/Pro has?
Cal Women not so long ago…
Michigan comes to mind but not to the magnitude of Stanford. Maybe Arizona or Auburn but I truthfully do not know much about those programs.
Alright it’s official what the natural mammal behavior is going on at Stanford?
As a Canadian, I hope she leaves Meehan and finds someone that can get that spark back she had in 2018.
Wishing you all the best TRuck!!!!!