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Swedish national teamer Louise Hansson has elected to swim for USC and gave the Trojans her verbal commitment last week. Hansson represented Sweden at the 2014 European Junior Championships and was a member of Sweden’s silver medal-winning 4×100 medley relay (along with Sarah Sjostrom, Michelle Coleman and Jennie Johansson) that set the European Record at FINA World Championships in Kazan this past summer.
“USC felt right from the beginning, they are a great school both in the pool and academically. I love the coaches, the team, and the weather.”
Hansson will be a huge boost to USC’s recruiting class after additionally landing two of the other top freestylers in the class, Tatum Wade and Stanzi Mosely. This spring, the team also received a transfer from former SDSU All-American, Anika Apostalon. Apostolon has best times of 21.76 in the 50 freestyle and 47.73 in the 100 freestyle and will be a senior when Hannsson, Wade, and Mosely arrive on campus next fall.
The freestyle events were weaker for the Trojans this past year compared to their other events. Head Coach Dave Salo utilized Chelsea Chenault and Kendyl Stewart to fill in for their lack of depth in the sprint events. Kasia Wilk was USC’s top sprint freestyler with times of 22.26 in the 100 freestyle and 48.12 in the 100 freestyle. USC didn’t have as much depth as they needed in the sprint freestyle relays, with only two swimmers with flat start 100’s under 50 seconds.
Hansson represents the club team Helsingborgs Simsällskap in Sweden. Her best times in LCM (with SCY conversions) are:
100 freestyle – 54.62 (47.76)
200 freestyle – 1:58.45 (1:43.82)
100 butterfly – 58.29 (51.25)
200 IM – 2:12.72 (1:56.68)
Stine Gardell was another Swedish swimmer that had a lot of success while at USC. She graduated as a 6 time NCAA All-American.
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SwimSwam’s Anne Lepesant also contributed to this report.