There’s something about Kansas that attracts the best and brightest to our campus. For the swimming and diving team, 13 new recruits joined the team this fall from across the globe. Maybe it was last season’s standout performances from the team — like Maria Mayrovich qualifying for NCAA or Erin Mertz earning All-American status as a diver. Or maybe it was the intensive recruiting done by coaches Eric Elliott and Jen Fox. Whatever it was, Kansas can look forward to a future of swimming and diving strength from this year’s additions.

Coach Clark Campbell said the swimming and diving team looked for athletes with the best times and potential to grow. It didn’t matter whether the athletes were from the U.S. or other countries. He said as recruiters, Kansas just tried to get potential athletes excited about being a Jayhawk and coming to Lawrence. This year, Kansas attracted 13 new team members: ten swimmers and three divers. Campbell said this was one of the largest recruiting classes he’d had since he’d been coaching here.

“We have to be patient this fall and we’re going to take things slow,” Campbell said, “The goal is to be a much better team in February than in October.”

Even in this large class and this early in the season, some recruits have stood out on the team. Sophomore diver Erin Savas took a long road to make it to Kansas. Originally from Midland, Texas, Savas has dual citizenship in the U.S. and Cyrpus and competed in the latter during her high school years. She also tried out for the Cyprus 2008 Olympic team. Savas tested out of high school when she was 16 years old to pursue competing in Cyprus, and used her grandparents’ bloodline to attain citizenship.

“It goes both ways,” Savas said, “On the one hand, I’m very blessed that I got to experience things people my age never get to experience but I’ve never been to a school dance before so it’s a tradeoff.”

Savas said it didn’t work out as she had planned in Cyprus so when she came back to the U.S. she looked for another way to keep swimming. One of her former coaches worked at St. Louis University and Savas went there to dive for a year. After not meeting her expectations, Savas looked to Kansas as another option for diving. Savas said she hopes to make a big impact during her four years at Kansas.

“This year is kind of a transition year for me but I’d love to be able to do some pretty big things for KU,” Savas said.

Also coming from abroad is swimmer Monica Johannessen from Norway. Johannessen swims the sprint freestyle and butterfly events for Kansas and said she hopes to make the sprint relay teams this season for Kansas. Johannessen said she was looking for a way to combine school and swimming — something that was hard to do in Norway — when she found Kansas.

“They presented the school very well to me,” Johannessen said. “I had to take a chance and I’m not regretting it.”

Johannessen said she wants to study psychology at Kansas but is taking mostly general education classes to adjust to speaking English on a regular basis. On top of the language barrier in the classroom, Johannessen has to adjust to swimming in yards instead of meters which threw off her times a little bit.

Like Campbell, Johannessen said she thinks that the new recruits and the team overall has a lot of potential to do well this season. She said she is looking forward to competing for Kansas and back home in Norway this fall for the Norwegian Junior Nationals.

“Monica is really good, she’s going to have a bigger fall.” Campbell said, “We may be putting her on a different path for training than the rest of the girls.”

The swimming and diving team also recruited some stars from right here in Kansas. Freshman Lindsey Legako is from Winfield and competed in the Kansas High School Championships all four years of her high school career. Legako started swimming competitively year-round during her junior year of high school when she joined the Wichita Swim Club. Legako placed 5th and 8th in the 50- and 100-yard freestyle and it was definitely the best part of her high school career.

“Right now, coming into it as a freshman my main goal is just to improve,” Legako said.

Legako said she was undecided on her major and was just trying to settle into college life. She said that between swimming and class she didn’t have much free time but being with the team was always fun. Legako said that when she came to Kansas she fell in love with the campus and the team “just fit” for her.

Besides Savas, Johannessen and Legako, the team has 10 other new recruits: Brook Brull, Lake Quivira, Ana Kuehler, Overland Park, Madi Landi, Baton Rouge, La., Cora Powers, Olathe, Brittany Rospierski, Valley View, Ohio, Alyssa Rudman, Baldwin City, Rebecca Swank, Wichita and Madison Wagner, Ft. Meyers, Fla., round out the swimming team. Freshmen Chirsty Cash, Lenexa and Taylor Ilten, Edina, Minn., join Savas on the diving side.

— — Edited by Betsy Cutcliff