After spending her first year of college in Florida swimming for Rollins College, Morgan Reilly has announced that she will be travelling back to her home state of North Carolina to swim at East Carolina University. Reilly is originally from Cary, North Carolina, about an hour and a half from the East Carolina campus, and swam club with the TAC Titans. While she has only one year of collegiate swimming experience, she has been with the Tars for two years. The program did not compete during the 2020-2021 school year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
In her one season in Winter Park, Florida, Reilly posted strong performances and lifetime bests across her primary events. She wrapped up her first year of collegiate swimming at the Sunshine State Conference Championships in February, swimming to lifetime bests in both the 200 back and 200 IM. Her highest finish at the meet came in the 200 back, where she took 11th in 2:03.89. That time marked nearly a three second drop in the event from her best time from high school. She ended the season as the program’s top performer in the 200 back and both IM events, and leaves the program as the school record holder in the 200 back.
Top SCY Times
- 100 back – 59.35
- 200 back – 2:03.89
- 200 IM – 2:07.37
- 400 IM – 4:30.51
With her current lifetime bests, Reilly is slated to make a big impact when she joins the Pirates this fall. Last season, her lifetime bests in the 200 back and 400 IM would have been among the team’s best. She’d have made an especially big impact in the 400 IM, an event which didn’t have any ECU representatives at the 2022 American Athletic Conference Championships. She’d have finished in the B-final of both events at the AAC Championships.
Reilly is a part of a large influx of talent for the Pirates, who last year had a roster of only 15 athletes. This fall, the program will have a roster of 25, with 15 of those student-athletes being in their first year with the program. Among those new athletes will be Grand Canyon University transfer Laura Kellberg, who’s converted tie in the 100 back is 56.62, and Ohio State transfer Brynna Wolfe, who has been 53.57/1:56.32 in the backstroke events during her time as a Buckeye.
ECU is currently in the process of rebuilding after the program was nearly cut during the Covid-19 pandemic. After the program was initially cut and 29 members of the men’s and women’s team transfered, the women’s team was ultimately reinstated.
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