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YUKA KUWAHARA
Kuwahara, who lived in Illinois for the first years of her high school career but has since moved to New York and now Virginia, trains with Nation’s Capital. She’s a distance freestyler and butterflier, and her best event is the 200 fly.
Kuwahara’s Top Times
- 500y free – 5:07.85
- 100y fly – 57.60
- 200y fly – 2:04.55
- 400m free – 4:38.17
- 100m fly – 1:03.78
- 200m fly – 2:21.64
Over the last few seasons, Kuwahara has had some big drops in the butterfly events. Each year since her freshman season, she’s taken off right around a second in the 100 and lopped off just under four seconds in the 200. Her long course improvements are even more impressive, after she went from a 1:05.68 and 2:36.53 summer of 2014 to her current bests this summer (listed above).
Comparing her times to William & Mary’s top times list from last season, Kuwahara would’ve been #4 in the 200 fly and #6 in the 500 free. She wouldn’t have finaled in the 500 or 100 fly last season at the CAA Champs, though she would’ve been on the brink of making the A final in the 200 fly, which has emerged as her best event. The CAA only takes the top 16 swimmers in each individual event through to finals, but Kuwahara absolutely has the means of scoring her freshman year in at least one event.
JULIA BLAND
Bland comes from New Jersey, where she placed 8th in the 500 free and 11th in the 200 IM at last year’s New Jersey High School State Champs, representing Montgomery High School. She swims with the Somerset Valley YMCA, and excels in distance free as well as longer butterfly and IM races.
Bland’s Top Times
- 500 free – 5:02.79
- 1000 free – 10:15.70
- 1650 free – 17:33.40
- 200 fly – 2:06.01
- 400 IM – 4:26.74
Bland would’ve also been 4th on William & Mary’s top times list in the 200 fly, like Kuwahara, but her real utility will likely come in the 400 IM, where she would’ve been their second-best swimmer last season. Their top 400 IMer was then-freshman Emma Merrill, who was barely half a second faster than Bland’s current best– those two could make for great training partners in the future.
Bland would’ve made the 200 fly B final last season at the CAA Champs, much like Kuwahara, though she’d have made the 400 IM A final.
William & Mary now has five girls in their incoming freshman class, adding sprint freestyler Emma Herold as well as distance freestyler Norah Hunt and breaststroker Lauren Freeman.
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