Tuesday, November 11, 2008
2 area swimmers commit to schools
varsity.roanoke.com
Timesland on Twitter
Wednesday can't get here soon enough for Lauren Hines and Seth Wensel, college-bound swimmers for the Gators' year-round program in Roanoke.
"It's been exciting, but it's been nerve-racking," said Hines, the 2008 Timesland girls' swimmer of the year.
Hines, a senior at Hidden Valley High School, will sign with the University of Richmond. Wensel, a senior at Christiansburg, will sign with Tennessee.
"Almost every trip I went on, I said, 'Yeah, this is the one,'" said Wensel, who was named first-team All-Timesland in 2008 after winning the 200-yard freestyle in the Group AA meet.
Wensel came to national prominence this summer when he broke a 20-year-old record in winning the 400 freestyle at Virginia Senior Champs.
"That was my breakout meet," Wensel said. "Until then, I could not have believed I would be recruited at this level."
Wensel took official visits to Virginia Tech, Florida State, Ohio State, Virginia and Tennessee. He also went to Navy unofficially.
"Tennessee was the last school I visited," Wensel said. "I wasn't even going to go to Tennessee until [Gators' coach] Doug Fonder mentioned it. I thought it would just be polite."
Tennessee was also a finalist for Hines, who moved from Lynchburg to Roanoke after her sophomore year at Brookville. She also had offers from Richmond, Virginia Tech and Penn State.
Richmond had the smallest team of the schools Hines visited. In fact, the Spiders do not have a men's swimming program, but they had a selling point that none of the others could match.
Hines' older sister, Sarah, is in her third year at Richmond and plans to graduate this year.
"A whole year early," Lauren said. "Those will be some big shoes to fill."
Hines wouldn't want anybody to think that swimming in the Atlantic-10, instead of the ACC or SEC, will make her any less committed.
"I see myself at least making the Olympic Trials before I get out; I wasn't so far off this year," she said. "I've been doing this sport for 13 years and I can't imagine not doing it. The one summer I took off, I couldn't wait to get back in the water."
A third Timesland swimmer, Evan Gregg, committed earlier to Michigan and is expected to join Hines and Wensel in signing during the early period Nov. 12-19.
