UC Davis Women’s Swimming Signs Two Recruits

DAVIS, California, June 13. UC Davis head women's swimming coach Barbara Jahn announced this week that junior transfer Mary Struempf of Diablo Valley College and Samantha Lougee of Santa Maria High have signed National Letters of Intent to join the Aggies during the upcoming 2007-08 season.

"We are very excited about these two recruits," said Jahn. "They will both be extremely useful and versatile for us next season. It's going to be nice to have them on the team because we can put them anywhere and they'll be able to help us out."

Struempf, who attended Carondelet High School in Concord, comes to UC Davis after two highly successful seasons at Diablo Valley Collge in Pleasant Hill. Last season she took first in the 50-yard butterfly, 100 fly and 100 individual medley at the Big 7 Conference Championships en route to being named the conference's Most Valuable Swimmer. Struempf also won all three of those events at the state championships as well as swimming on four winning relay teams, which brought her total number of wins to seven and led her team to the state championship. She also enjoyed success during her freshman year as she earned a state championship in the 50 and 100 fly events while placing second in the 500 free. During her high school career, Struempf was a member of four straight North Coast League championship teams and a North Coast Section champion during her senior year in 2005.

"She's a very versatile swimmer and will help us out tremendously in the butterfly events," said Jahn. "She's been a star at the junior college level and she's coming off a tremendous state meet. I think her background shows that she knows how to compete and knows how to win."

Lougee, a native of Santa Maria, comes to UC Davis after a long and successful career at the club level as a member of the Santa Maria Swim Club. Her achievements include being named team MVP and earning coaches awards and all-league honors. Wanting to focus more on her training, Lougee sat out her senior season at Pioneer Valley High. Academically, Lougee excels as a member of the honor roll and president of her school's chapter of the Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA).

"She's a very bright and hardworking person," said assistant swim coach Rick Henderson about Lougee. "She has good strokes and her times coming in are very solid. She's going to be a big help and is going to contribute on a lot of different fronts. She'll do very well for us in the backstroke and may even swim in the relay medleys."

The women's swimming and diving team has now signed eight student-athletes to national letters of intent for the upcoming 2007-08 season, which marks the Aggies first year as a full NCAA Division I member. UC Davis has been eligible to compete for the Big West Conference title in swimming and diving since 2005.

Special thanks to UC Davis for contributing this report.

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