#20 Kenneth Barnicle (2025) Adds His Verbal Commitment to Cal’s Growing Class of 2029

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Kenneth Barnicle from Mendham, New Jersey, has announced his verbal commitment to the University of California, Berkeley for the 2025-26 school year and beyond. He wrote on social media:

“I am very excited to announce my verbal commitment to continue my athletic and academic career at the University of California, Berkeley. I want to thank my family, coaches and teammates for helping me to get where I am today. I am honored to be a part of the Berkeley family. GO BEARS!!! 🐻”

Barnicle attends West Morris Mendham High School and swims year-round for Greater Somerset Area YMCA (the same club that produced his future Cal teammates Jack and Rob Alexy – although Jack is currently a junior and will likely have graduated by the time Barnicle arrives at Berkeley). We ranked him #20 on our Way Too Early list of top recruits from the high school class of 2025.

In high school swimming last year, Barnicle won the 200 IM (1:48.92) and was runner-up in the 100 back (48.37) at the New Jersey Meet of Champions, earning PBs in both events. He subsequently lowered his 100 back time to 48.20 a month later at the YMCA Short Course National Championships, placing 5th in the final of the individual event. He also came in 7th in the 200 back (1:44.99 in prelims), 11th in the 200 fly (1:50.82), and 5th in the 200 IM (1:49.56 in prelims), earning PBs in all his backstroke events.

This summer, he lowered his lifetime bests across the board at the YMCA Long Course National Championships, where he won the 200 back, was runner-up in the 100 back and 400 IM, and came in 3rd in the 100 free and 200 IM. He left the meet with new PBs in the 100 free (51.67), 50 back (26.47), 100 back (55.86), 200 back (2:02.35), 200 IM (2:07.09), and 400 IM (4:33.54). Earlier in the summer, he scored a Winter Juniors cut in the 200m free (1:54.63), showing potential with a 6.5-second year-over-year drop. His 100 free time was a 2.3-second improvement over a year ago. He also dropped 2.9 seconds in the 200 IM and 1.7 in the 400 IM in long-course season.

Best SCY times:

• 200 back – 1:44.99
• 100 back – 48.20
• 200 IM – 1:48.92
• 400 IM – 3:57.51

An elite backstroker in the steeped Cal tradition, Barnicle also shows off versatility in free and IM, with Winter Juniors-or-better cuts in the 100/200/1000 free, 100/200 back, and 200/400 IM and Futures cuts in the 50/500 free, 100 breast, and 100/200 fly.

Barnicle will form the Cal class of 2029 with verbal commits #15 Caiden Bowers, “Best of the Rest” IMer Ian Platts-Mills, and Andrew Shackell.

If you have a commitment to report, please send an email with a photo (landscape, or horizontal, looks best) and a quote to [email protected].

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