The Virginia Cavaliers continued to crush the recruiting game on the women’s side with a recent 2022 commitment from Claire Tuggle. She swims for the Santa Maria Swim Club in California and has a gold medal from the 2019 World Juniors in the 4×200 freestyle relay. Tuggle is one of the best recruits in the class of 2022 as she is primarily a middle distance freestyler but can also branch out to the 100 freestyle and 400 IM.
Claire Tuggle made the A-Finals in the 200 & 400 freestyle at the 2019 US Nationals as she finished sixth in the 200 free and fourth in the 400 freestyle. She also reached the C-Final in the 200 IM where she placed 23rd overall. At the 2019 Juniors a week later, she won the 800 freestyle.
At the international level, she finished sixth in the 200 freestyle (1:59.83) and seventh in the 400 freestyle (4:12.39) at the 2019 World Juniors in Budapest as well as anchoring the gold medal winning 4×200 free relay with a 1:58.39.
Claire Tuggle. Photo Courtesy: Connor Trimble
Tuggle famously got within a tenth of a second of Sippy Woodhead’s legendary 200 freestyle 13-14 national age group record that has stood since the 1978 World Championships at the 2018 Junior Pan Pacs where she swam a 1:58.58, missing the record of 1:58.51.
She was also featured as a Swimming World up-and-comer in our June 2017 issue.
Tuggle will be joining a stacked Virginia team in the fall of 2022 that were seeded to win the 2020 national championship before the meet got cancelled due to COVID-19. With a lot of returning talent in place, as well as a strong recruiting class locked for 2021, Tuggle will only make Virginia stronger by the time she gets to campus, as Kate Douglass and Ella Nelson will be seniors on the team.
Claire Tuggle’s Best Times (SCY)
- 100 free: 49.72
- 200 free: 1:44.96
- 500 free: 4:41.36
- 200 IM: 1:59.62
- 400 IM: 4:16.91
Best Times (LCM)
- 100 free: 56.20
- 200 free: 1:58.21
- 400 free: 4:07.85
- 800 free: 8:38.55
- 1500 free: 16:39.04
- 200 IM: 2:15.02
- 400 IM: 4:44.91
Claire Tuggle is the first recruit solidified by Virginia in the class of 2022 as she will be joining the 2021 class when they are sophomores:
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Congratulations!??
Congratulations
Congratulations Claire!