Up to this point, four athletes from across the country are officially committed to join the Hoosiers in the water for the 2019-20 season.
Jacob Destrampe, Will Gallant, Brendan Burns and Jake Marcum all signed their official NCAA paperwork during the last few days.
Destrampe, from Franklin, Indiana, is the brother of Adam Destrampe, a senior on this season’s swim and dive team. The younger Destrampe is ranked eighty-third in the class of 2019 and first overall in the state of Indiana according to collegeswimming.com.
In August, he was named USA Swimming Scholastic All-America honors and is a freestyle specialist with strong performances this summer at the Indiana Senior State Long Course Championships.
"Jacob is one of the top swimmers in Indiana and I’m super excited to have eight years with that family,” Coach Ray Looze said.
Another important freestyle piece joining the Hoosiers is Connecticut-native Gallant. Like Destrampe, Gallant is also ranked first in his home state and eighty-third overall in the 2019 class. On Oct. 12, Gallant achieved his fastest times on the 50- and 200- meter long course freestyle with times of 22.88 and 1:43.08 respectively. Looze said that Gallant will be a solid improvement to the team’s success in distance events.
Pennsylvania-native, and perhaps the most coveted swimmer in the 2019 class, Burns is ranked No. 1 in his home state and in his class. Burns competes in the butterfly, backstroke and freestyle events and recently earned first at the YMCA Long Course National Championships with a time of 2:00.41 on the 200-meter long course fly.
“Burns is something,” Looze said. “He’s really good in backstroke, fly and freestyle as well. That was a big recruiting success.”
Marcum is the final Hoosier who signed in these last few days. He is ranked third in his home state of Tennessee and Looze said, will be bringing important freestyle and backstroke talents to Bloomington next fall. Like Destrampe, Gallant was also named USA Swimming Scholastic All-America in August.
With seven seniors — all competing in freestyle, butterfly, breast and backstrokes — leaving in the spring, these four additions to Indiana will play important roles in the team’s quest for future Big Ten and NCAA titles.
Looze said watching seniors like Vini Lanza, Ian Finnerty and Zach Apple depart Bloomington will be difficult. However, Looze said this new influx of talent will be a solid backbone to the talent that will be sticking with the team.
