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Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania’s Zoe Skirboll (the #15 recruit on our Way Too Early list of top girls from the high school class of 2022) is the second verbal commitment in as many days to the University of Virginia for the 2022-23 school year. #4 Claire Tuggle announced her verbal pledge yesterday.
Skirboll attends Fox Chapel Area High School and swims year-round for Racer X Aquatics, where she is coached by her father, Jim Skirboll. She swam for her school as a freshman, winning the 200 IM (1:58.75) and placing 2nd in the 100 breast (1:01.23) at the 2019 PIAA Class AAA Girls State Championships. She also swam breaststroke (28.00) on the 10th-place medley relay and led off the 17th-place 400 free relay (51.52) in prelims. She did not participate in high school swimming in her sophomore season, choosing to focus on (what was expected to be) the upcoming 2020 Olympic Trials.
Skirboll is an Olympic Trials qualifier in the 50m free (25.94) and 100m breast (1:10.46). She owns National Age Group records in the SCY 10-and-under 50 free (24.90, tied with Lea Neal), 10-and-under 100 free (54.89), and 11/12 50 breast (28.70), as well as the LCM 11/12 50 breast (32.96). Last fall she attended the USA Swimming National Select Camp at the Olympic Training Center.
Skirboll excels at a wide range of events, as evidenced by her lineup at 2019 Winter Juniors East where she swam the 50 free, 100 free (13th), 100 breast (4th), 200 breast (15th), 100 fly (22nd), and 200 IM (15th). Her 100 breast and 100 fly times were lifetime bests and she was only a couple hundredths off in the 100 free. She scored a slew of best times at 2019 NCSA Spring Championship, including 50/100 free, 50/200 breast, 50 fly, and 100 IM.
Best Times:
- 100 breast – 1:00.89
- 200 breast – 2:15.71
- 200 IM – 1:58.75
- 50 free – 22.87
- 100 free – 50.31
- 200 free – 1:48.86
- 100 fly – 54.71
UVA had eight sub-23 sprinters on the roster last year, and that’s before either the class of 2024 (Abby Harter, Alex Walsh, Anna Keating, Emma Weyant, Quinn Schaedler, Sophia Wilson) or 2025 (Abby Kapeller, Caroline Pennington, Ella Bathurst, Gretchen Walsh, Kate Morris, Reilly Tiltmann) make their appearances in Charlottesville.
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Why top hs boy swimmers don’t pick UVA?
They do, just not as common as top women swimmers.
All the top men swimmers go to ut or CAL with a few leftovers spread around to other places.
That’s not true at all.
Top 10 recruits in the class of 2021 in order:
-NC State
-Texas
-Indiana
-Michigan
-Virginia
-Cal
-NC State
-Penn
-Northwestern
-Stanford
2020:
-Texas
-Georgia
-Georgia
-Michigan
-Cal
-Virginia
-Florida
-Stanford
-Michigan
-Texas
Changing of the guard is underway!
Thank you for correcting me. Guess they just swim faster when they get to ut and CAL?
I feel like UVA is hoarding breaststrokers at this point
Alexis Wenger will graduate before Zoe Skirboll arrives. Neither Kate Douglass nor Alex Walsh are likely to be a relay breaststroker for the next two years; we’ll see how Anna Keating develops. Ella Nelson is an IM / 200 Breaststroke specialist. So, no, I don’t think UVA has too many sprint breaststrokers.
That’s 5 breaststrokers besides Zoe. I call that pretty good depth when Stanford/Cal/USC/Texas have worked really hard to get anyone under a minute recently.
Breaststrokers also score points in events other than medley relays, too.
The UVA coaches are great swim coaches that have mastered social media and communication with young people. I still say the fact they get so many top recruits So early without proving themselves on the national stage, or producing a single Olympian is insane,but even more credit to their incredible talent. These girls are thumbing their nose at Stanford, Cal, and Michigan, like they’re the JV squad- Teri McKeever, not impressed, Greg Meehan- meh – not even a dilemma- straight to the HOOS Got to be the DeSorbo Effect!
Wait a second. Desorbo Effect changed screen names!!!
I wonder if the whole “California is a bunch of liberal crazies” reputation is scaring them away.
Stanford isn’t for everyone and I doubt kids are “thumbing their nose” at the most selective school in the country (with a 4% acceptance rate). Student-athletes need to be taking a full schedule of AP classes, very strong SAT / ACT scores along with their swimming pedigree to even deserve a look. Many kids are told up front they won’t get through admissions, so they move on. I doubt there are many kids turning down the opportunity if afforded one.
Delusional. UVA is easy to get into, Stanford impossible for athletes outside the top 4% that take AP exams?! Right…
Nice try. UVA is very selective and delivers an education on par or better than the Palo Alto school in many programs. Also, the 4% acceptance rate does not apply to top-tier athletes. Chill.
Nice try? Hmmm. UVA is selective – for a public school. But not even a top three ranked public schools. Actually #28 overall. Again, not bad but not comparable academically to Stanford. I’d be curious to hear which programs you think they are on par or better than Stanford.
“But not even a top three ranked public school” Dude….they’re the 4th ranked public school lol. You’re not wrong but nice nitpicking
https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/uva-6968/overall-rankings
Back in the day, Stanford accepted swimmers that UVA coaches couldn’t get through UVA admissions even with a full ride offer. I don’t know the current situation, but given the continued successes of Stanford across multiple sports, I am betting they continue to admit marginal students who are really, really good athletes. Ranking academic institutions is mostly about reputation. You can get a solid education at many, many schools – I just think it’s a bit easier at better ranked schools. As with most things, the more you put in, the more you get out.
[NOTE: I am collecting down votes.] Rather than clicking on a minus sign, would you consider actually countering my post? Then I would know to what you are reacting negatively. If you don’t believe the facts that I experienced first hand, there is not much I can do to change your minds. I will not name names, but I could. If, instead, you don’t agree that you get more out of something if you put more into it, then you apparently haven’t been reading much psychology research.
Stanford still makes exceptions for elite athletes.
Back in the day, California had affirmative action. Now, it’s called holistic approach to the admission process.
Geography matters. If you’re a kid that lives b/n NY and S. Carolina, you’re within a one-day drive to UVA. Parents can come for the day to watch. Flying cross-country to the Bay area is a long trip. Claire Tuggle is obviously making the reverse cross-country trip. But for kids from PA, like Skirboll, UVA makes a lot of sense.
“I was born in 2000 and- AND. You mean there’s more!?
Ok
Danggg UVA is going to dominate
I’m just here for the Desorbo Effect comments. Wheres our favorite swimswam cheerleader!?
He is busy attending covid parties
2020 has really got us finding out how much we actually love what we pretend to hate
Congrats UVA on two great pickups. ‘Funny’ that only 1 month ago Tyler Fenwick told Coleman on the podcast that talking scholarships right now would “put undo pressure on kids who have a lot of pressure on them” and is “definitely not something we’re looking at right now”. I was really impressed by that then and how classy the program was and thought I must have misheard him in light of these announcements. So I went back and listened. Guess things have changed a ton in the last month or else that sentiment only applied to kids not in the top 20. Start at the 14 minute mark if you want to fact check me. #soclassy
UNCheat tears taste like candy….
Funny how people don’t talk about how NC State basketball is under its own investigation right now for “cheating.” Also, not to forget in 1989 “Jim Valvano accepted blame Friday for a North Carolina State basketball program guilty of NCAA violations and academic neglect and said he will abide by recommendations that he resign as the school’s athletic director.” And yes, I am talking basketball on a swim site since these comments about “cheating” at UNC are rampant on this site. Move on…….old news……
What makes you think the person you responded to is an NC State fan or even an NC State basketball fan at that?
That was early July. You have to be next level ignorant if you think top level programs aren’t offering recruits at this moment, especially considering official visits won’t be happening.
It’s just a verbal anyway. They can always change their mind.
And, a lot of this is driven by the kids! They have had lots of time to talk with their parents and coaches and be on Zoom calls and, without official visits, why not if they know where they want to go!?! Some will probably wait but some of these kids just want a shred of stability knowing where they are going in this time of great instability! Regardless of where you stand on either side of the argument or what teams you are for or against, IT IS TIME FOR EVERYONE THAT WRITES NEGATIVE COMMENTS TO CHILL OUT! Let’s support our 16 and 17 yr olds and give them encouragement and support.
#swimMom so now we’ve progressed so far that meeting coaches in person and seeing how a team interacts with each other and with recruits doesn’t matter anymore? Maybe you don’t even need to visit a campus? Maybe you can get to know a coach over zoom but you can’t get to know a team and team culture does matter. You can’t learn that over zoom. Too bad that schools are even making offers now knowing there won’t be visits for the foreseeable future, but I agree it would be naive to act like it doesn’t happen. Just don’t act like it is making it easier on the athletes to push for commitments without coming to campus or meeting the team.
You think a swimmer can learn the “team culture” in a 2 day weekend????
Ask anybody who’s been on a team with a toxic culture. Everyone bands together on recruiting weekends, puts on a good face for the recruits, hoping that if they just get a few more good swimmers, it will fix the culture!
Sneak peak: it doesn’t.
@swimapologist actually yes I do. College kids in the middle of classes and heavy practices aren’t the best at faking it for 5 weekends a year when they are stuck giving up their dorm beds to recruits and sleeping on the floor (a whole nother topic in itself). But, yes, my swimmer had a school drop from top 2-3 to out of the picture after getting to know the team on a visit. Also, most schools want the swimmers to share feedback on the recruit as well and if they see them fitting the culture. Can all that be wrong? Sure. Can kids change from the time they are 15-16 to when they are 18? Sure. But they form a… Read more »
Agree with NC fan. No real reason why this year’s juniors need to be committing now. Seniors- it is a different story. So much that zoom calls cannot show. Yes- everyone craves normalcy, but no reason to rush to a decision without a visit. Something to be said for seeing a campus with kids on it and watching a practice.
Classy is not what I think of. Their Instagram presence obviously works in this era of recruiting but it is not classy.
“Classy” is the absolute worst word to have ever been introduced to the sports lexicon.
The.
Worst.
This is what UVA does. When they do have official visits, they try to get as many kids as possible on campus as early as possible. Then they offer them some money, though in the cases I know of, not nearly as much as the kids will get elsewhere, and tell them the offer disappears in 2 weeks. Sure, no pressure…
Not gonna lie, that 2026 threw me off for a slight second.