Where are the HS All-Americans of yesteryear?
Becoming a high school All-American is one of the greatest honors a teenage swimmer can achieve. But what happens to these high school hot shots in college and beyond?
To find out, we went back five years ago-to the August 1998 issue of Swimming World-to see who the big names in high school swimming were back then.
The first swimmer we saw was on the cover of the magazine, a hot high school junior from Carondelet High in Concord, Calif.-a girl by the name of Natalie Coughlin. Natalie had been honored for the second straight year as Swimming World’s female High School Swimmer of the Year. In 1998, she set national high school records in the 100 yard back (52.86) and 200 IM (1:58.45) that still stand today.
How has Natalie done since then? Not too badly. Last year, she was Swimming World’s female World Swimmer of the Year, setting 12 American records and four world records.
Of course, not all high school All-Americans go on to perform as spectacularly as Natalie. Most do very well in college and beyond, but some fade from view. Then there are late bloomers who only begin to blossom in college.
Still, the list of 1998 high school All-Americans includes some pretty impressive names: Amanda Beard, Loni Burton, Maritza Correia, Maddy Crippen, Tanica Jamison, Jessie Perruquet, Shelly Ripple, Stacianna Stitts, Sarah Tolar and Steffi Williams were some of the top girls.
The boys included: Anthony Ervin, Pat Fowler, Brendan Hansen, Dan Ketchum, Klete Keller (honorable mention), Alex Lim, Tim Siciliano, Mark Warkentin and Dan Westcott.
Copyright Sports Publications, Inc. Aug 2003
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved
