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Canadian swimmer Paige Banton has verbally committed to Marshall University in West Virginia. She currently trains with the Sault Surge Aquatic Team in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, where her mother Erin is the head age group coach and Sarah MacDonald is the program’s overall head coach.
“I am proud to announce my verbal commitment to Marshall University where I can study biology and continue to do what I love – SWIMMING. I am very excited to work with my new coach and this amazing group of girls that welcomed me to the team during my visit. From that time on, I just knew that if I chose Marshall I would make memories that would last a lifetime.”
Paige Banton is primarily a breaststroker and IMer, who has been about as good in long course and short course to this point of her career.
| LCM | SCM | SCM to SCY Conversion | |
| 400 free | 4:49.78 | 4:37.78 | 5:17.46 |
| 50 breast | 33.76 | 33.30 | 29.99 |
| 100 breast | 1:13.01 | 1:11.45 | 1:04.36 |
| 200 breast | 2:39.65 | 2:35.48 | 2:20.07 |
| 200 IM | 2:28.74 | 2:24.77 | 2:10.42 |
| 400 IM | 5:25.29 | 5:12.66 | 4:41.67 |
Banton has been competing at national-level meets since 2015, when she was just 12-years old, and she finished 34th in the 50 breaststroke and 41st in the 100 breaststroke at the recent Canadian World Championship Trials in Toronto. In April, she recorded top-10 finishes in both the 50 and 100 breaststroke at the Eastern Canadian Championships.
Ian Walsh was named the Marshall head coach midway through the 2018-2019 season, after the prior head coach Bill Trammel resigned just as the season was beginning, and Marshall still wound up 4th out of 6 teams. Breaststroke was a big hole for the Thundering Herd, which scored only 1 point in the discipline at the Conference USA Championships: a 16th-place finish from sophomore Rachel Hughes in the 100 (1:05.12).
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