Sarah (Rudolph) Cole

Sarah Rudolph was just 15 years old and a recent graduate of Wilson High School when she entered the University of Puget Sound, but in no time the teenager was making big waves in the pool for the Loggers.

When the Cole family moved the area, Sarah, born Sept. 11, 1966 in Lincoln, Neb., started swimming at Lakewood Swim Club for coach Mike Stauffer at age nine. The family moved to Tacoma and Sarah joined the Tacoma Swim Club, coached by Dan Wolfrom and Dick Hannula. During her senior year at Wilson High, she placed in the top six in both the 200 and 500 freestyle and swam a leg on the 400 freestyle relay that placed third at the state meet.

Because she was only 15, Rudolph chose to stay close to home, so she chose the University of Puget Sound. The UPS program benefited greatly as Rudolph won five NCAA Division II national swimming championship events from the years 1983-85, earning Swimmer of the Meet honors after winning three events at the 1984 national championships. She set Division II records in the 200, 500 and 1650 freestyles, and earned All-America honors from 1983-86. Rudolph was ahead of her time in more than just the classroom as five of her school swimming records stayed on the books for 10 years.

In 1984, she competed in the Trials for a spot on the U.S. Olympic team. One year later as a 17-year-old UPS junior, Rudolph represented the United States as a national select team member competing at the 1985 Maccabiah Games in Israel. She won two silver medals at the event known as the “Jewish Olympics.”

Rudolph shined out of the pool as well, earning Academic All-America recognition and receiving an NCAA Post- Graduate Scholarship while maintaining a 3.7 grade point average as a history major. She earned the University of Puget Sound’s Alice Bond Award in 1983 as the school’s top female athlete, and she was inducted into the University of Puget Sound Athletic Hall of Fame in 1996.

He is currently a Professor of Law at the Moritz College of Law at The Ohio State University.