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Double Illinois Sprint Champion Daria Pyshnenko Commits to Michigan

Double Illinois High School State sprint champion Daria Pyshnenko has verbally committed to the defending Big Ten champions from the University of Michigan.

Pyshnenko is the daughter of Vladimir Pyshnenko, who is the head senior coach of the CATS Aquatic Team in suburban Chicago. Her dad is a four-time Olympic medalist representing the Unified Team in 1992 and Russia in 1996 – with 1 gold and 3 silvers, all coming from relays. In total, he has 10 major international medals- all earned as a relay participant.

Daria took the 2015 Illinois State Championships in both the 50 (22.52) and 100 (49.77) yard freestyles. The former remains her lifetime best, but she was able to improve to a 49.14 by the end of her junior year in the latter.

“I chose to commit to University of Michigan because I felt at home there,” Pyshnenko said. “On my first unofficial visit, I knew right away that this was the perfect school for both my academic and swimming growth. I have only heard good things about this school and I can easily say that I have made the right decision. I was drawn by the amazing swimmers and coaches and cannot wait to become of the Wolverine family! Go Blue!”

She’s very locked-in to the sprint freestyle events, with secondary times of 1:50.36 in the 200 free and 56.82 in the 100 fly.

In spite of what she describes as a “pretty serious shoulder injury” during her sophomore season, Pyshnenko’s shown steady improvement throughout her high school career. That included a second-place finish in the 50 free at the state meet as a sophomore- a feat she completed after a year of kicking and three weeks of full swim training.

Pyshnenko’s progression in the 50/100 free

  • Freshman season – 23.18/51.12
  • Sophomore season – 23.09/50.01
  • Junior season – 22.52/49.14

After helping lead her team, Lake Forest High School, to a second-place overall finish at last year’s State Championship meet, she will sit out the 2016 high school season.

Michigan graduated their top sprinter, Ali DeLoof, at the end of last season. They return Siobhan Haughey this fall (22.41/47.71) with three more years of eligibility as the foundation of the sprint group moving forward.

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Mike Kulygin
8 years ago

Go Daria!!!!

SUNY Cal
8 years ago

Why is she sitting out her high school season??

Chips and COOKIES
Reply to  SUNY Cal
8 years ago

My thought as well.

Erik Collins
Reply to  SUNY Cal
8 years ago

Because she wants to train, would be my guess…

SUNY Cal
Reply to  Erik Collins
8 years ago

Can’t she train & still swim her high school season??

ole 99
Reply to  Braden Keith
8 years ago

In other words, she wants to train with her club team instead of with the high school team.

SUNY Cal
Reply to  Braden Keith
8 years ago

Glad my kids don’t live in Illinois then. Kinda takes the fun team aspect from your highschool team away. All the tough practices & seriousness comes soon enough when you get to college D1 swimming.

Illinois Parent
Reply to  SUNY Cal
8 years ago

It is quite the opposite here in Illinois. Going from club swimming to high school swimming is very exciting. The team environment of high school is strong and very competitive. The IHSA state meet is an unbelievable experience. We do see some of the very top swimmers choosing to not participate but in general it has a high participation rate.

Coach
Reply to  SUNY Cal
8 years ago

And how do you get to the tough practices in D1 without doing the work in HS?

BusySwimDad
Reply to  Coach
8 years ago

My son just graduated from an Illinois High School last May (2016). High School workouts can be harder than club. Depends upon the coach. It does mess up the training schedule and taper for national meets which can still be attended if permission is received from IHSA. It would be nice to do both as a high school swimmer in Illinois, I think it may have helped some kids during the college recruiting process to have more official times available for coaches to see. But the state HS meet is no cake walk….. Just look at all the Olympic trial qualifiers and actual Olympians the last 12 to 15 years that swam at that meet…. A who’s who
of… Read more »

SwimDad
Reply to  Coach
8 years ago

swim club…they do harder practices than the avg hs team.

SwimDad
Reply to  SUNY Cal
8 years ago

some hs programs are so lame, that the serious swimmers wont be prepared for college, unless they swim club all year….especially sr year…and by then, they are already signed. Their are a handful of great hs programs in IL….otherwise, club is the way to go, if you’re serious

SwimDad
Reply to  SUNY Cal
8 years ago

not if its a crappy hs team; her (olympian) dad is her CLUB coach. Lots of IL girls skip sr year HS

About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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