{"id":654339,"date":"2026-09-27T18:30:42","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T01:30:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=654339"},"modified":"2026-09-27T18:30:42","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T01:30:42","slug":"usc-kickstarts-2028-recruiting-with-verbal-from-in-state-distance-freestyler-cassie-espinoza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/usc-kickstarts-2028-recruiting-with-verbal-from-in-state-distance-freestyler-cassie-espinoza\/","title":{"rendered":"USC Kickstarts 2028 Recruiting With Verbal From In-State Distance Freestyler Cassie Espinoza"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>USC Kickstarts 2028 Recruiting With Verbal From In-State Distance Freestyler Cassie Espinoza<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>NEW COMMIT:\u00a0<\/strong>The University of Southern California has scored its first public verbal commitment for the 2028-29 season and beyond from in-state standout <strong>Cassie Espinoza<\/strong> of Whittier, Calif. Espinoza is a Summer Nationals qualifier who specializes in distance freestyle.<\/p>\n<p>Regarding her commitment, she said:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: #b01212\"><strong>&#8220;I\u2019m excited to announce my verbal commitment to the University of Southern California! I would first like to thank my Mom and Dad for all your love and support, I wouldn\u2019t be here if it wasn\u2019t for you guys. I would also like to thank all the coaches who have gotten me here, especially Coach Rick. Thank you for challenging me and pushing me to be the best swimmer I could be. I finally would like to thank Coach Lea, Coach Meghan and the rest of the USC staff for giving me this opportunity to continue my academic and swimming career. Fight On!&#8221;<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Espinoza, who does her club swimming with LaMirada Armada, most recently competed at Junior Nationals where she placed 13th in the 800m free, 17th in the 1500m free and 23rd in the 400m free. She also raced the 800m free at Summer Nationals the week prior.<\/p>\n<p>Last winter, she placed eighth in the 1000 free and 12th in the 1650 free at Juniors West. Espinoza then took fifth in both the 500 free and 1000 free at Walnut Speedo Sectionals. She also earned bronze in the 800m free at Indianapolis Speedo Sectionals in March where she placed fifth in both the 400m free and 1500m free as well.<\/p>\n<p>Her best times include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>500 free &#8211; 4:51.13<\/li>\n<li>1000 free &#8211; 9:54.59<\/li>\n<li>1650 free &#8211; 16:38.83<\/li>\n<li>200 free &#8211; 1:50.46<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Currently a junior at Sonora High School, Espinoza raced to fourth place in the 500 free at the 2026 CIF State Championships. She won the 200 free and the 500 free at the 2026 CIF Southern Section DIII Championships.<\/p>\n<p>The Trojans placed fifth at the 2026 Big Ten Championships and 14th at the 2026 NCAA Championships. Espinoza&#8217;s best time in the mile would&#8217;ve ranked third on USC&#8217;s roster last year and would&#8217;ve finished 16th at last season&#8217;s conference meet.<\/p>\n<p><i>If you have a commitment to share, please send a photo and quote via email to hs@swimmingworld.com.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>USC Kickstarts 2028 Recruiting With Verbal From In-State Distance Freestyler Cassie Espinoza NEW COMMIT:\u00a0The University of Southern California has scored its first public verbal commitment for the 2028-29 season and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":101,"featured_media":654340,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[61683,138413,64090,328],"class_list":["post-654339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-high-school","tag-agon-high-school-recruits-page","tag-cassie-espinoza","tag-southern-cal","tag-usc"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - 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