Florida-based sprinter Stefanie Mendizabal will be making the trip up north to start her collegiate career in the fall of 2018. Mendizabal has committed to the UConn Huskies, and will join them next season after graduating from the Bolles School in Jacksonville, Florida, where she’s been a part of the state champion Bulldogs for the last 3 seasons. She currently trains with the Bolles School Sharks club team, and primarily swims sprint free.
Last season, Mendizabal was a scorer in both sprint freestyle races at the Florida High School 1A State Championships in both 2015 and 2016. Last week, she advanced to the class 1A region 1 championships with her performances in the sprints st the district 2 meet, and will compete in her final state meet on November 4th.
Mendizabal on her commitment:
“UConn’s beautiful campus made me feel right at home and it’s strong academic program along with coach Chris swimming philosophy, and amazing team reassured my decision to represent UConn for the next 4 years.”
Mendizabal’s Top Times:
- 50 yard free- 24.04
- 100 yard free- 51.81
- 200 yard free- 1:53.98
- 500 yard free- 5:15.40
With her best times, Mendizabal is within a half second of American Athletic Conference scoring range in both sprints. At UConn, she’ll train alongside now-sophomore Eliza Manning, who scored in the B final of the 50 free and 100 free as a freshman at last season’s AAC meet. She’ll also have Brazil Rule (23.7/51.9) and Maddie Blair (23.7/51.5) in her training group.
If you have a commitment to report, please send an email with a photo (landscape, or horizontal, looks best) and a quote to [email protected].
Who coaches Bolles now?
Jon Sakovich is the head coach of Bolles. He’s awesome. Swam for him and Sergio when I was in high school.
They also have Jeff Pishko, Mike Kuzma, Kathy Steele, and Dale Porter on staff. Those are just the ones that I know of since I graduated awhile back.