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The University of Florida women’s swimming and diving team has announced the addition of Julia Heimstead and Katelyn Schroeder for the 2024-25 school year.
Julia Heimstead
Heimstead is a fifth-year transfer from Bloomington, Illinois. She competed at the University of Arizona, where she specialized in fly and free. She was a three-time NCAA qualifier, competing in the 200 IM and 100/200 fly in 2022; the 50/200 free and 200 fly in 2023; and the 50 free and 100/200 fly in 2024. She was also an integral part of the Wildcats’ relays.
At Pac-12 Championships this season, she placed 8th in the 100 fly (52.03), 8th in the 200 free (1:46.60), and 6th in the 200 fly (1:54.57). She also split a 23.11 butterfly leg in the 200 medley relay to help Arizona finish 3rd.
Heimstead was named Pac-12 Women’s Co-Swimmer of the Month in November for the second time in her career with the Wildcats.
Best times:
- 50 free – 22.41
- 100 fly – 51.61
- 200 fly – 1:54.57
- 200 free – 1:44.69
Katelyn Schroeder
Schroeder hails from Langley, British Columbia, in Canada. She is a member of the Langley Olympians Swim Club and will head to Gainesville after having spent a year at the University of Toronto.
In February, she was named OUA Women’s Rookie of the Year after finishing 1st in the 100 back, 1st in the 200 back, 2nd in the 50 back, 6th in the 100 fly, and 3rd with the 4×50 medley relay at the 2024 Ontario University Athletics (OUA) Swimming Championships.
Before Toronto, she ranked 3rd in the 100m backstroke and 5th in the 200m backstroke in the Junior Rankings of Canada. She tied for gold at the 2023 Speedo Canadian Swimming Championships last August and represented Team Canada at the Junior Pan Pacific Championships in 2022.
Schroeder is the latest in the Canada-to-Gainesville pipeline. She will join fellow Canadians Lilly Daley, Eric Brown, Josh Liendo, and Ed Fullum-Huot as well as fellow freshman Julie Brousseau, on the Gators’ roster in the fall. Non-Canadians Addison Reese, Gracie Weyant, and Sofia Plaza will also be in that class. Laila Oravsky and Sylvia Statkevicius, two more Canadians, have verbally committed to Florida for the fall of 2025.
Best LCM times:
- 50 back – 29.21 (25.77)
- 100 back – 1:01.31 (54.15)
- 200 back – 2:12.24 (1:56.97)
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committing to Florida just because that’s where your boyfriend is going… interesting decision
I mean… its not like its a bad program. Easily a top 5 program nationally even excluding the pros.
So if anything she is taking advantage of that to help herself.
Also, isnt it perfectly normal to have someone you know recruit you to a place. Whether a job or club activity or social event, thats how everyone interacts. “hey im here and really like it , you should try it out.”
Why can swimmers like her compete for “fifth-year”? They’ve already experienced four NCAAs. NCAA was canceled in 2020. So I assume swimmers registering later than fall 2020 are not affected due to COVID.
The 5th year was not given as a reward for swimmers who had their last NCAA Championship canceled (keeping in mind that 99% of college swimmers finished their seasons). It was an incentive to keep swimmers and teams from redshirting the 2020-2021 season, which was significantly impacted by COVID.
Julia is an amazing swimmer, so excited to what she can do with UF. Think that could be a match made in heaven.
Canadian universities can never compete with U.S. universities in recruiting top swimmers. Not only that they can’t afford to offer lucrative scholarships, there are also academic admission requirements that the swimmers have to meet or else they won’t get in, regardless of their swimming accolades. On the other hand, U.S. swim coaches can have a lot of influence in the university admission process and swimmers do not have to care so much about their grade average to get into the university and the team. Too bad…
I really don’t think that Canadian swimmers choose NCAA over going to a Canadian university due to academic standards.
That’s not what I’m saying either.
It is hard for them to compete but I dont think the argument of lax academic standards is the reason.
Being international myself, the infrastructure as a whole is what attracts people in. I cant speak for all countries but the countries Ive lived in, there are likely a handful of places nationally that could compete with the infrastructure of my club team growing up, much less nutrition, gym, training, facilities, academics, tutoring, stipends, etc etc etc etc that a college program provides.
excited to see what Heimstead can do not under the coaching of Busch Lite
aka Shrub
Speaking of the University of Florida, Katie Grimes?
https://youtu.be/Z0YIJQ1jgEI?si=0_ZTfjN–r86F3R8
Based on her Instagram she’s gotten a lot of sponsors lately, so I’m curious if she might be going pro?
She can get sponsors and still swim NCAA with NIL
Not necessarily true. Would have to be sponsorships tied to name, image and likeness only. Nothing can be tied to swimming participation. No incentives could be added for Olympic medals, WR, etc.
Based on a general gut feeling, she doesn’t look like someone who’s planning on going to college any time soon