The SMU women’s swim & dive team has announced the addition of nine newcomers for the 2024-25 season after the team’s roster was decimated by departures earlier in the offseason.
The team will add Teia Salvino, Summer Osborne, Isabella Krantzcke, Mira Szimcsak, Rachel Anderson, Hadar Karp, Ophir Rakah, Madison Parker and Madeleine Hebert.
Salvino was an Honorable Mention in the our re-rank of the girls’ High School Class of 2024, while Osborne, Karp and Rakah are the other incoming freshmen.
Hebert (NC State), Krantzcke (Arizona State), Szimcsak (Washington State) and Parker (Washington State) come over as mid-career transfers, while Anderson is a graduate senior coming from Loughborough University in the UK.
SMU also announced the addition of three divers for 2024-25.
In April, it was reported that the Mustangs had a mass exodus of cuts and transfers in the aftermath of Ozzie Quevedo‘s first season as head coach, which saw the women placed 2nd at the AAC Championships in February and qualify zero swimmers for NCAAs.
The school’s release specifically notes they will only return seven swimmers from last year’s roster.
In 2024-25, SMU will begin competing in the ACC.
See the full SMU release with a brief breakdown of each incoming recruit below:
Courtesy: SMU Athletics
DALLAS, Texas (SMU) — SMU head coach Ozzie Quevedo signed nine athletes to add to his roster for the 2024-25 season. The Mustangs also return seven from last year’s roster, including three AAC-All Conference Team selections — Isabella Bedoya, Jimena Leal and Tiffanie Ruan.
SMU women’s swimming is coming off of a second place conference finish last season, featuring 12 members being placed on the AAC All-Conference team.
The Mustangs also captured four championship titles at the AAC Championship — 200 back, 400 free relay, 400 medley relay and the 200 free.
“I am immensely proud of the talent and determination that our recruiting class brings to SMU Swimming and Diving as we step into the ACC and set our sights on making waves in the NCAA and on the international stage,” Quevedo said. “These athletes possess the skill, drive and potential to compete at the highest levels and represent the Mustangs with excellence. I have full confidence in their abilities to achieve greatness and shine on a global platform.”
Below is a brief introduction of each incoming signee and/or transfer for the upcoming 2024-25 season.
Teia Salvino – Incoming Freshman | San Clemente, Calif. | Abeka Academy
Salvino comes to the Hilltop as a two-time CIF and State Champion. She has set two national age group records and was on the Philippine National Team for the 2023 SEA and Asian Games. For SMU, she will be specializing in the freestyle, backstroke and IM.
A San Clemente, Calif. Native, Salvino captured first place during her high school years at the state competition in both her individual and team races.
Summer Osborne – Incoming Freshman | Auckland, New Zealand | Rangitoto College
Osborne hails to the Hilltop as the reigning Rangitoto College Senior Girls Swimming Champion, which she also won in 2022. She also holds the title of Rangitoto College Sportswoman of the Year. The former water polo player also helped her school win the top Co-Ed title at New Zealand National Secondary Schools Swimming Championships for the past 4 years (2020-2023).
For club swimming, she also swam for the North Shore Swimming Club. Here, she won the NSS Coaches’ Incentive Female — the swimmer from top squad demonstrating diligence in training and special approach to performance, as well as the Anthony Kattan award — for the top performance at National Age Group Championships. For North Shore, she had the top times in the free, fly time and back.
Isabella Krantzcke – Incoming Sophomore | The Woodlands, Texas | Arizona State University
Krantzcke comes to the Mustangs after one year at Arizona State University. Prior to collegiate swimming, she swam at the Woodlands Christian Academy and lettered all four years. Here, she was a four-time first-team all state selection, a five-time TAPPS state record holder and an eight-time TAPPS state champion. She also swam for the Houston Bridge Bats under coach Dirk Marshall.
During her time at Arizona State, Krantzcke placed in the top 25 in three separate events at the Pac-12 Championships. She finished 17th in the 200 breast, 18th in the 100 breast and 24th in the 200 IM.
Mira Szimcsak – Incoming Sophomore | Budapest, Hungary | Washington State University
A Hungary native, Szimcsak joins the Hilltop after one year at Washington State. With the Cougars, she broke the school record in the 500 free, posting a time of 4.43.35 at the Pac-12 Championships. Also at the championships, she placed in the top three in both the 1000 free and 1650 free. As a result of her success, Washington State awarded her the 2023 Freshman of the Year.
In 2018, Szimcsak won the 5KM event at the European Junior Open Water Swimming Championships and became a world champion in the 4×1250 meter relay at the World Junior Open Water Swimming Championships. Most recently in 2023, she won gold at the Setùba leg of the Open Water Swimming World Cup in the 4×1500 relay event.
Rachel Anderson – Graduate Student | Somerset, England | Loughborough University
Anderson hails to the Hilltop from England after spending her undergraduate years at Loughborough University. In 2019, she finished 16th at the World Junior Championships. Additionally, Anderson also was a British senior medalist in the 400 meter freestyle in 2019.
Hadar Karp – Incoming Freshman | Srigim Li-On, Israel | Hof HaSharon High School
Coming off of winning with her relay team at Nationals, Karp joins the Mustangs with fellow incoming Israeli signee Odir Rakah. Karp was also fifth at the World Championships for the 100 free relay. An incoming freshman, she plans on specializing in the freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke and fly for SMU.
Ophir Rakah – Incoming Freshman | Srigim Li-On, Israel | Hof HaSharon High School
Rakah will be joining the Hilltop along with her fellow teammate from Israel, Hadar Karp. She competed in the swimming event in the annual Israeli Maccabiah competition at Kiryat Bialik. In the past two years at Nationals, she has won the 100 and 200 fly. An incoming freshman, Rakah also plans on specializing in the freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke and fly for SMU.
Madison Parker – Incoming Sophomore | Spanish Fork, Utah | Washington State University –
Parker joins the Mustangs after completing her freshman year at Washington State University. With the Cougars during their dual meet against UCLA, Parker earned a four-way sweep. While there, she also reached the top 10 for program marks in both the 50 free and 100 free.
During her high school years with the Titans at Olympus High School, she was named the team’s Most Valuable Player and the 2023 female Athlete of the Year while being an honor roll student.
Madeleine Hebert – Incoming Sophomore | Henderson, Nevada | NC State University –
A transfer from NC State, Hebert hails to the Hilltop as a Henderson, Nevada native. She was a finalist at the Winter and Summer Junior Nationals in both the 100 and 200 freestyle events. During Hebert’s senior year at Coronado High School, she won the Las Vegas Sun’s Female Athlete of the Year for all of the Las Vegas student-athletes.
Women’s Diving Announces 2024 Recruiting Class
The Mustangs Are Coming! On the heels of a school-record eight-championship season and set for its inaugural season in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), SMU is riding a surge of momentum heading into 2024-25.
There is a right way and a wrong way to change programs and this is the wrong way! It is like building a house on quicksand. Teams need strong leadership, good culture, and trust. This is just the opposite.
Ozzie belittled, humiliated, used emotionally abusive tactics, and lied to his team over and over again. This should be a wake up call to all athletes. It is not okay to be treated this way. Enough is enough!!
If everyday people treated co-workers the way he treated these girls they would be fired!
What’s even more sad is the school knew what was going on but did nothing other than hand out the number to the sports psychologist and that phone was blowing up.
Haven’t heard a single good thing come out of their swimmers’ mouths about the coach.
I’m sure it will be fun for the team to only have 16 total athletes in their first season in the ACC. Fingers crossed that no one gets injured or suck all year.
Twenty four would have been a much better number without the unnecessary drama that took place a few months ago. Eight women could have finished their careers as planned and not had their lives torn apart.
Sounds like another DFW team that can’t handle change so they throw a fit and then blame their new head coach.
Odd that SMU is struggling to recruit swimmers from Texas.
Based on his comments and the majority of the new roster Ozzie seems most interested in making a name for himself on the international stage.
When most of your recruits are international you are having difficulties recruiting in the US. He has no other choice.
When Coach Collins left there were 8 from Texas and one from Oklahoma on the roster.
When Steve coached SMU to several (6+?) top 4 finishes at NCAAs there were not a bunch of Texas or Oklahoma swimmers. This comment doesn’t hold much water. Correlation is low.
I went back to the 2006-2007 season, which wasn’t the peak of their success but was the oldest roster they have posted. 14th at NCAAs that year. 6 Texans (including the Blackman twins), 6 internationals, 7 swimmers from elsewhere around the US.
7 internationals on this year’s roster, so not that different. And of course, as pointed out, their BIG NCAA swimmers were often internationals.
SMU has never really recruited heavily out of Texas. As a private school with a big price tag, it doesn’t really make sense for them to recruit big in-state, especially when tuition at state schools is so low.
SMU is a good education, but as an in-stater, if you could go to Notre Dame, Northwestern,… Read more »
This is year 2 of Ozzie. There has been no improvement and in a sense program is falling. Recruits are staying away, mass transfers, poor leadership by the coach, etc. No correlation?
I think the point was more that there were many more in state before Ozzie came with only 2 leaving because they graduated and retired. There are actually 8 international now and a 9th that competes for another country out of the 16. Not only were 9 cut during the 23-24 season but another 7 quit or transferred which are relevant statistics as well considering the season started with 34 swimmers. No one came back for a 5th year. The quotes in the press release stress international stage and global platform. It appears there was no focus on maintaining the healthy team environment that was there which is also important if you want your swimmers to be their best mentally.
16 swimmers leaving the program in one year for whatever reason is not a good look for any program. Imagine if 50% of the entire student body left SMU.