Melanie Koto, an All State swimmer from Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, IL has signed a National Letter of Intent to join the women's swim team at Illinois Tech in the fall of 2008 head coach Rob Bond announced today. Koto, a freestyle sprinter, will join the team as a freshman for the 2008-09 season.

"Melanie comes from a very strong high school and club team with a great deal of championship experience. At the Illinois High School State Meet, she swam to an 11th place finish in the 50 Free, an 18th place finish in the 100 Free and was on the 11th place 200 Free Relay. These swims helped Stevenson to a 3rd place team finish." Coach Bond said. "This big meet experience is going to be important to Melanie, as we are going to look for her to anchor our relays and immediately contribute to our national program."

Melanie also brings a great deal of academic success to the program. She carried a 4.0 GPA at Stevenson and will be enrolled in the Pre-Med program at IIT.