Israeli National Champion Noga Zilberberg Commits to Duke (2023)

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Israeli swimming National Champion Noga Zilberberg has verbally committed to Duke University and will join the women’s swimming & diving team in the fall of 2023.

Zilberberg, who is 17, comes from one of Israel’s great swimming families: her older sister Gali is the Israeli National Record holder in the 1500 free in long course, and her mother is Michal Amin, who was an Israeli National Champion and record holder in the 1980s.

In 2019, Gali committed to swim at Penn State, though she never actually arrived in the U.S.

Noga Zilberberg won the 400 free at June’s Israel Summer Nationals meet, touching in a time of 4:18.54 in long course. A week later, at the Junior National Championships, she finished 2nd in the 200 free, 200 back, and 200 IM.

Best Times: long course meters, short course meters, short course yards (converted)

The Duke women were mid-pack at last year’s ACC Championship meet, placing 6th out of 12 teams. They generally struggled in the freestyle events, though:

Duke’s 2021 ACC Scoring, by freestyle event:

• 50 free – 2
• 100 free – 18
• 200 free – 17
• 500 free – 1
• 1650 free – 5

Aside from the 100 fly (10 points), those were the Blue Devils’ five lowest-scoring events.

Zilberberg is already within scoring territory in multiple events, including the 500 free, with still 21 or 22 months of development before she swims her first NCAA meet. Her converted best times in the 500 free and 200 back would have qualified for the C-Final at last year’s ACC Championship meet, and her 200 IM time would have just-missed qualifying by less than a tenth.

With big time drops coming in 2021, including almost a second in the 200 back at December’s Winter Short Course Championships, Zilberberg doesn’t appear to be close to a plateau either.

She joins a deep early group of commitments for Duke in the class of 2023 that includes Molly Donlan, Elle Passe, Ali Pfaff, and Claire McLean. Among that group, Passe is most similar to Zilberberg as a mid-to-distance freestyler.

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