Victoria's best events are the sprint freestyle and butterfly events. She has competed at the Canadian Senior National Championships and Coach Bond will look for her to score points for the program immediately.
Bond says, "Victoria is a tremendous talent and we are looking for her to contribute to our national program in a big way. Her experience at large national meets will certainly prepare her for the NAIA National Championships." Bond went on to state, "Victoria will bring top end talent to a team that is young and on the rise. I look for this women's team to take a big step forward at the national championships next year."
Julia Mazzoni Duarte has signed a National Letter of Intent to swim with the Illinois Tech Swim Team Coach Bond announced today. Duarte is a breaststroke specialist and will join the team as an incoming freshman in the fall of 2008.
"Like many of our other recruits this year, Julia brings a wealth of major meet experience to the program. She has swum at the Brazilian National Meet and I look for that experience to prepare her for competing in the NAIA National Meet." said Bond. "She has the talent to come in and score points for us at the NAIA National Meet right away and her progress over the past 2 years has shown that she is continuing to get stronger and faster. I look forward to working with her over the next four years to help that trend continue."
Julia will be studying engineering at IIT.
"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.
Coach Bond announced today that Andrea Zuniga, a native of Caracas, Venezuela, has committed to Illinois Tech. Zuniga will come in as the team's top backstroker and joins the program as a freshman for the 2008-09 season.
Andrea has consistently been in the top 5 swimmers for her age group in Venezuela and has recently moved up into the top 10 nationally for all ages in the backstroke events. She trains with the Emil Friedman team, which is the top program in Venezuela with 16 national titles over the past 25 years. Andrea is also quite accomplished in the classroom. She ranks 5th in her class of 104 students and maintains a high GPA. Andrea will be studying Architecture at IIT.
"I look forward to the opportunity to work with Andrea. Her contributions to the program will be immediate. We can expect her to play a major role on our national team right away." said Coach Bond. "We have, once again, brought in a swimmer with a great deal of experience at a high level of competition. I expect this freshman class to be the best in school history and I don't worry about them feeling any pressure from that expectation. All of the girls have shown the ability to perform in a very competitive environment."
"We are thrilled to have Morgan coming to the program next year. I expect her to have a large impact on our national team right away." said Coach Bond. "She provides excellence in the IM events, while also allowing for some flexibility in many other events. Morgan has the potential to swim any event we need, though most of her focus will be on the IM and Breaststroke events."
As a four year letter winner for Wilson High School, Morgan has qualified for the AAA PIAA state meet a number of times. She swam the breaststroke leg on the 2008 3rd place Medley Relay before placing 11th in the IM and 17th in the Breaststroke as an individual as part of Wilson's 4th place team finish. Just as successful out of the water, Curran carried a 3.8 GPA and will be studying Pre-Med at IIT.
