Meghan Burton, who hails from Midlothian, Virginia and was a USA Swimming Scholastic All-American at Trinity Episcopal School in Richmond, will head home to the Washington, D.C. area after a year in Tempe swimming for Arizona State University. She announced via social media:
“Super excited for my next three years at GW! After being through ALOT this last year I can’t wait to join the colonials!! #GWUBBB”
Burton did not participate in Pac-12s her freshman season at ASU. Had she been on the GW squad at the 2018 Atlantic-10 Championships, where the women finished third behind Duquesne and Richmond, Burton would have given the Colonials a second A-finalist in the 200 back (current sophomore Gemma Atherley was runner-up in 1:58.04), in the 100 back (freshman Andrea Ho finished fifth with 55.00), and in the 100 fly (senior Abbey Fusco finished second with 53.99). GW is a program on the rise; the Colonials broke 14 program records, set an A-10 record in the 4×200 free, and produced 11 individual scorers at the 2018 conference meet.
Best SCY times:
- 50 back – 26.08
- 100 back – 55.86
- 200 back – 1:59.18
- 50 fly – 25.47
- 100 fly – 55.36
https://www.instagram.com/p/BhiCLPSBi_c/?hl=en&taken-by=megs_burton
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Commenters should really
refrain from bashing people’s times. I see it in recruit announcements all the time (especially for non top 25 kids) and with these transfers. If you want to state an argument using someone’s times and couple it with facts and stats go right ahead. Also not every transfer in these recent scenarios has left because they are not contributing to conference points, etc. Saying that across the board is just inaccurate. Everyone is just trying to get by in this life let’s try to support our young people.
Look at what Ray accomplishes year in and year out at IU. AND with so much turnover in the Big Ten, he’s STILL THERE. What does that say? It says he’s either the world’s greatest actor, or the IU administrators know a thing or two about elite-level D1 Swimming & Diving. IMHO we make transfers into a bigger deal than they really are. IU is a great program and Looze is a great coach. Nothing to see here – move along!
And ASU…so a 1:59 backstroker transfers out of the PAC12…Maybe she shouldn’t have been there in the first place? A-10 seems like a good place to start?
Let’s just say, “He makes the trains run on time” and we’ll all know what we mean.
The recruiting process should include lots of research and soul searching. Visit many places, talk to many people. It has to be a good fit all around, for both the team and the athlete. Schools should be honest with recruits, and likewise, recruits should self reflect on their own abilities and contributions to a program.
Whose man is this
It seems to me like a lot of the ASU transfers are swimmers who are not able to contribute to scoring on such a deep team. Not knocking anyone here–I did not score huge on my own team. Makes me wonder if ASU is pushing less gifted swimmers out. I saw this on my own team in the form of drastic cuts being made on the mens side.
She didn’t swim the second half of the season and conference because she left in December 2017. Women of all abilities have left the team, including dual meet and Pac-12 scorers, and NCAA swimmers.
ASU also picked up 5 transfers in… on the list many of transfers are foreign nationals. Three of transfers in from IU… can draw many conclusions from data to fit a narrrative? North Dakota dropped their program so not a choice to transfer….
Thanks for keeping a master file on all the activity, much appreciated!
There’s definitely something wrong with ASU team itself if someone mentions they went through ALOT in a transfer picture. Not to mention the amount of people leaving the school for better opportunities.
While there may or may not be something wrong with the ASU team her statement is no evidence for your conclusion. She could have had health issues, roommate issues, legal issues, family issues or a host of other issues completely unrelated to the ASU swim team.
Transfers can be good for both swimmers and teams. HOWEVER, when you have a flurry of transfers in the way that ASU and IU have had recently, there’s real reason to think there’s something going on with coaching or team culture or the like.