AUBURN, Ala. – After signing 12 to the 2022 class back in November, the Auburn swimming and diving team had five more sign their National Letter of Intent with the Tigers over the last month, head coach Ryan Wochomurka announced Thursday.
The group, who will join the Auburn team for the 2022-23 season, includes four international swimmers along with a graduate transfer.
The transfer, Lilly Byrne, comes to Auburn from Tulane where she recently won gold in the 200 and 500 freestyle events at the American Athletic Conference Championships and finished second in the 1650 freestyle. As a freshman in 2020, she qualified for the NCAA Championships and was named the AAC Freshman of the Year. She'll have two years of eligibility remaining.
Auburn added two more to the women's team with Rosalie Kleyboldt from Germany and Micaela Sierra, a native of Uruguay who currently resides in Florida.
Last April, Sierra broke the Uruguayan national record in the long course 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:12.13. She specializes in the 100 and 200 breaststroke events. Kleyboldt swam the 50, 100 and 200 freestyle events for Germany at the FINA Swimming World Cup in October.
The Auburn men will be bolstered by the additions of Sohib Khaled and Daniil Markov, two swimmers who specialize in sprint freestyle and butterfly.
Markov, a native of Russia, won gold, silver and bronze medals as part of relay teams at the 2021 World Short Course Championships in December. He also took home gold and silver at the 2021 Swimming World Cup and silver at the 2021 European Short Course Championships. His individual 50 and 100 freestyle times were among the fastest in Russia last year.
Auburn will close out the 2021-22 season with the NCAA Championships over the next two weeks. First up will be the women who compete March 16-19 in Atlanta.
2022 SIGNEE PROFILES
Lilly Byrne
Hometown: Canton, Ga.
Previous School: Tulane University
High School: Woodstock
Stroke: Middle/Distance Freestyle
Sohib Khaled
Hometown: Cairo, Egypt
High School: Al Wahaa International School
Club Team: Al Ahly Sporting Club
Stroke: Sprint Free/Butterfly
Rosalie Kleyboldt
Hometown: Wiesbaden, Germany
High School: Helmoholtz Gymnasium
Club Team: SG Essen
Stroke: Sprint Free/Butterfly
Daniil Markov
Hometown: Novosibirsk, Russia
High School: Novosibirsk Boarding School
Club Team: Russian National Team
Stroke: Sprint Free/Butterfly
Micaela Sierra
Hometown: Montevideo, Uruguay / Parkland, Fla.
High School: Broward Virtual School
Club Team: Azura Florida Aquatics
Stroke: Breaststroke