Cal Men Land Second Top-20 Recruit With Verbal From #5 Jack Xie

The Cal men have picked up steam in the class of 2016 recruiting race, adding a second top-20 commit in the last two weeks.

Jack Xie, another in-state product from PEAK Swimming, has verbally committed to Dave Durden’s team. Xie has the potential to be an NCAA scorer as a freshman as the #5 recruit in the men’s class. He’s only been in the United States for a year after moving to the Bay Area from Beijing in the middle of the last school year, but has already made a huge impact in yards.

That somewhat truncated opportunity in short course has left his event lineup in short course not fully vetted (he has no 50 yard free, for example), but the swimmer whose given name is Xiangfie

In yards, his best times:

• 100 free – 44.99
• 200 free – 1:38.68
• 100 breast – 55.62
• 200 breast – 2:01.88
• 100 fly – 46.75
• 200 IM – 1:45.81

Cal graduated their best 100 butterflier, Seth Stubblefield, at the end of last season, but still bring back three swimmers faster than 47 seconds (Justin Lynch, Long Gutierrez, Ryan Murphy), all of whom will still have eligibility remaining when Xie arrives in Berkeley. Still, Xie, as a freshman, should compete for A-finals at the 2017 Pac-12 Championships in both the 100 fly and the 200 IM.

Along with his classmate Gwo, Xie also has a shot at making an immediate impact on Cal’s sprint relays as part of a class that’s being built around speed. In the early going, this class is a reaction to last year’s 2nd-rank group where the top recruits were a backstroker, breaststroke, distance freestyle were the big pieces, revolved around a once-in-a-generation recruit Andrew Seliskar, who can do a little bit of everything but will probably tend toward the 200 fly, 400 IM, and breaststroke races.

Xie, like Gwo, was a double champion at California’s first-ever true state championship meet last season, winning the 100 fly and the 200 IM (which he also won at the CCS Sectional Championships). The dual commitment is likely not a coincidence – according to a story in the Mercury News, the two became good friends after crossing paths at the College Station Sectionals meet in February in Texas.