Winter Jrs Sprint Champ Ethan Harrington Switches Commitment from Princeton to Stanford

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Palo Alto High School senior Ethan Harrington, who had originally committed to Princeton University, has flipped his commitment and will attend Stanford University next fall. He wrote on social media:

“I’m excited and honored to announce that I will be swimming and studying at Stanford University this fall. Thank you so much to everyone who helped me get here! So excited to be part of such a great team! 🌲🌲”

This is the second change of commitment for Stanford’s class of 2027; the Cardinal also nabbed Gibson Holmes after he first verbaled to Duke. What makes Harrington’s different is that it took place after the National Letter of Intent** signing date and underscores one of the disadvantages the Ivy League has in recruiting – without an NLI contract, athletes like Harrington can continue to talk to other coaches.

**The NLI is a binding agreement between the student-athlete and an academic institution, whereby the institution agrees to provide financial assistance (what we think of as an athletic scholarship) in exchange for the student’s promise to attend the school. All colleges and universities that participate in the NLI program agree to not recruit a student-athlete once he or she signs an NLI with another college or university. As the Ivy League does not allow its member institutions to offer athletic scholarships, their eight schools do not participate in the NLI program.

Harrington, “Honorable Mention” on our 2023 list of top recruits, is a big get for Stanford, who had already landed #2 Rex Maurer, #7 Gibson Holmes, and “Best of the Rest” Henry McFadden for the class of 2027.

Since last June, Harrington has dropped time in his best events and now sports PBs of:

• 50 free – 19.73 19.45
• 100 free – 43.60 42.92
• 200 free – 1:38.11
• 100 fly – 48.23 47.51

We were ruminating about whether he would develop his 200 free or 100 fly, and he seems to have answered that question over the last six months. At Winter Juniors West, swimming for Palo Alto Stanford Aquatics, Harrington won the 50 free (19.45), was runner-up in the 100 free (42.92), and came in seventh in the 100 fly (47.51), all with lifetime bests.

Harrington, Maurer, Holmes, and McFadden make up the kind of recruiting class that had eluded Stanford until 2022. The Cardinal men finished seventh at the 2022 NCAA Division I Championships, up seven spots from their 14th-place finish in 2021.

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