Kentucky’s state record-holding butterflyer Grace Oglesby, one of the top recruits in the class of 2016, has made an early verbal commitment to stay in-state and join the Louisville Cardinals in the fall of 2016.
Oglesby currently holds the second-fastest 100 fly time in high school swimming history after going 51.75 at the Kentucky High School State Championships in February. That’s just .05 off of the national high school record set by Wisconsin high school junior Beata Nelson. Oglesby put up that time swimming for her home high school, North Oldham High out of Goshen, Kentucky.
On top of that, Oglesby is excellent through all three butterfly distances, and adds big-time talent in a number of other events ranging from backstroke to IM to freestyle.
Oglesby’s Top Times
- 100 fly – 51.75
- 200 fly – 1:56.32
- 50 free – 22.92
- 100 free – 50.71
- 100 back – 55.76
- 200 IM – 2:02.59
- 400 IM – 4:21.05
Louisville, of course, just trained Kelsi Worrell to become the fastest short course butterflyer in American history. Worrell, who will be a senior next season, broke the American 100 fly record and won NCAA titles in that and the 200 fly this past season. The addition of Oglesby means that Louisville will potentially have an immediate plug-and-play NCAA-level butterflyer step on campus the very first season after Worrell graduates.
Oglesby already competes for Cardinal Aquatics out of Louisville, so she’ll be familiar with the team and area. No doubt Worrell’s huge improvement curve was a major draw for Oglesby, not to mention the huge rise for the Louisville women across the board. The Cardinals blew up this past postseason for a 6th-place finish at the NCAA Championships, and already look like one of the elite teams in their new conference home, the ACC.