Eight athletes sign national letters of intent to attend Kentucky.
May 16, 2000
LEXINGTON, Kty. – The University of Kentucky swimming coach Gary Conelly announced thesigning of eight athletes during the spring signing period. AmandaBourgeois and Shawna Sechrist have signed national letters of intent toswim for the UK women’s squad, while Fernando Barros, Darron Berquist,Jamie Peterkin, Russ Throckmorton, Daniel Wimer, and Eddie Wolling haveinked with the men’s team.
Bourgeois and Sechrist join Vannessa Everett, Jenaca Pumphrey, KelliStein, and Kendra Traham who signed in the fall.
“On the women’s side, this is a really good class,” Conelly said. “Itfills in all of the spaces we needed with the exception of the sprintfreestyles. On paper, this is probably the best recruiting class we haveever had.”
Bourgeois, a native of Spartanburg, S.C., is a versatile freestyler andwill add depth for the Cats in all of the freestyle events. She is a juniornational qualifier and member of three YMCA Women’s National Championshipteams, while swimming for the Y-Spartaquatics Swim Club.
Sechrist comes to UK via Saltsburg, Pa., where she was a junior nationalqualifier in the middle distance freestyle events.
“The number of kids we signed on the men’s side was really importantbecause we wanted to get our volume up,” Conelly said. “We had severalsituations in dual meets last year when we just didn’t have any bodies toplug into certain holes to score points. We solved our depth problem withthese six guys.”
Barros is a sprint freestyler out of Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and will adddepth in the sprint butterfly and backstroke events.
Conelly calls Peterkin, a native of Castries, St. Lucia, the “drop-deadsprinter of the three” and comes to UK with times faster than current UKhonorable mention All-American Shaun Zitani.
Wimer, a native of Palatine, Ill., owns a personal best of 20.97 in the50-yard freestyle and will be looked on to provide depth on UK’s sprintfreestyle relay teams.
“Barros, Peterkin, and Wimer have impressive times with the littleswimming background they have,” Conelly said. “All three could into theNCAA qualifiers for us before they leave here.”
