LSU has made its first foray into the recruiting market of the high school class of 2016, nabbing California breaststroker Catherine Lowengrub.
Lowengrub verbally committed to the Louisiana State University Tigers and will join the team’s Class of 2020, beginning her college career in the fall of 2016.
Currently beginning her senior year of high school, Lowengrub comes in with an SEC scoring time in the 200 breast as well as a near-scoring time in the 100-yard distance.
Lowengrub’s Top Times
- 100 yard breast: 1:02.72
- 200 yard breast: 2:13.35
- 200 yard IM: 2:04.02
- 100 meter breast: 1:13.09
- 200 meter breast: 2:36.80
Lowengrub swims for the Aquazot Swim Club out of Irvine, California and also attends JSERRA Catholic High School.
She helps bolster two breaststroke events that are fairly thin for LSU at the moment. Last year, sophomore Colleen O’Neil was the only Tiger breaststroker to score at SECs, swimming in the B finals of the 100- and 200-yard distances.
Lowengrub will overlap with O’Neil for one season, 2016-2017, before O’Neil graduates. LSU also entered then-junior Taryn Mackenzie in both breaststrokes at the 2015 SEC Championships, but Mackenzie will be a senior this season, and will be graduated before Lowengrub arrives on campus.
LSU moved up to 5th last year in a brutal SEC, and only trailed Tennessee by 18.5 points. But as the conference’s middle tier begins to rise with programs like Kentucky, Missouri and LSU improving, the SEC looks like it’ll only be deeper and faster – a key reason LSU needs swimmers like Lowengrub to flesh out its roster.
Yeah! Geaux Tigers!