Texas Gets Verbal from NASA Freestyle Specialist Ella Tierney

NASA’s Ella Tierney has committed to the University of Texas starting in the 2017-18 season.

I chose Texas because of its combination of academic and athletic excellence. Both the coaches and girls are so amazing and I can’t wait to call it home. Hook ’em!

Like her older sister Grace, a sophomore at Wisconsin, Ella is a very strong mid-distance freestyler whose sweet spot is the 200.

Tierney is coming off of two top-six finishes individually at the IHSA (Illinois) State Championships. Swimming for Loyola Academy, Tierney finished t-3rd in the 200 free (1:50.14/1:49.40p) and t-5th in the 500 free (4:54.31/4:50.33p) at the 2015 IHSA Championships. She also anchored Loyola‘s 400 free relay in 51.31 (but 50.60 in prelims) and their 200 free relay in 23.44 (23.40 in prelims).

She’s made significant strides in freestyle from sophomore to junior year– she went from 51.73 to 50.88 in the 100, 1:51.93 to 1:48.10 in the 200, and 4:54.70 to 4:49.26 in the 500 in just one season.

Tierney is also very strong in LCM– she finished 18th overall in the 200 free at the 2016 U.S. Open this past summer after she touched 88th in the 400 free at the 2016 U.S. Olympic Trials.

Top Times

In addition to her 2016 Trials cut in the 400 free, she went under the OT cut in the 200 free at the U.S. Open in August.

Tierney will be able to immediately contribute to a strong mid-distance free group led by sophomores Quinn Carrozza and Joanna Evans— she would’ve been 3rd in the 200 free and 4th in the 500 free behind them at the 2016 Big 12 Champs with her best times.

While she’s not fast enough yet to contribute at the national level, Tierney has been improving steadily throughout high school, and she’ll (at the very least) be a strong conference-level scoring weapon at the start of her Longhorn career.

She joins the rest of the Texas class of 2021, which includes Victoria Edwards, Evie Pfeifer, Logan Shiller and Peyton Quattlebaum.