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Jake Magahey, who we ranked #3 on our list of first rankings of the high school class of 2020, has made a verbal commitment to swim for the Georgia Bulldogs, he announced today on his Instragram account.
Magahey is a member of the US Junior National Team, and he earned three medals at the 2018 Junior Pan Pacific Championships, in the 200 free (silver), 4×200 free (gold), and 800 free (bronze).
I am proud to announce my verbal commitment to swim and study at the University of Georgia! I would like to thank my parents, family, coaches, teammates, and friends, along with everybody who’s been a part of my life along this awesome journey. GO DAWGS!
Magahey won’t be traveling far when he heads off to Athens in 16 months. He’s a native of Dacula, GA, attends Mill Creek High School, and trains with Swim Atlanta. He’s primarily a distance swimmer, an area where the Bulldog men have a had a good deal of success. Bulldog Andrew Gemmell was a US Olympian, Matias Koski won the 1650 at the 2015 NCAAs, and this year, in the middle of an otherwise largely disappointing NCAAs for Georgia, junior Walker Higgins made the A-final of both the 500 and the 1650 freestyle events.
When we ranked Magahey a little over a year ago, here were his times in his best events:
500 free – 4:16.88, 1000 free – 8:55.33, 1650 free – 14:52.85, 200 free – 1:36.11
and here’s where they stand now…
500 free – 4:14.61, 1000 free, – 8:55.33, 1650 free – 14:51.54, 200 free – 1:35.13
At this year’s NCAAs, his 500 would’ve been just outside scoring range, while his 1650 time was about five seconds off what it took to score, and would’ve placed him 22nd. His best 200 free time, however, is faster than two of Georgia swimmers went on a rolling start on the 800 free relay, and with another year of development, Magahey should be poised to make an immediate impact on the Bulldogs’ roster.
Georgia’s 18th place finish last week was their lowest NCAA ranking since 1992, but help is certainly on the way in the form of Magahey and Luca Urlando, who was our #4 recruit as of last spring, but who will undoubtedly move up after his assault on the NAG record book over the past year.
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Lol, Georgia at 18. Harvard’s faster than y’all now
His mile is actually a 14:51 now, which he swam at winter juniors
A 1 second drop! Wow!!!
Will Coach Bauerle still be around for these two studs or will he follow in Eddie Reese’s footsteps and coach til he is 80?
You make a good point. His contract extension reportedly takes him through 2020 where he will be 68. Would be the cleanest break but also before this class arrives on campus. With a growing pro group and assistants that have been waiting in the wings for years maybe he pulls a Troy and stays on deck for the pros but cuts the brutal college day to day.
Mediocre rhyme of the day: thats one heck of a neck
I’m not a fan of earlier and earlier college commitments. Programs don’t have sufficient time to evaluate developing teenagers that will continue to grow and improve in their senior year. Remember when swimmers would actually take recruiting trips their senior year….
Doing OVs in junior year sure is a bit easier for the swimmers/families though.
This is only a verbal commitment. I don’t know how it works these days but do schools still offer official visits to verbally committed swimmers? Say Florida or Texas still offering this kid an official visit in the fall? This is quite common in football and basketball but no idea about swimming.
Great pickup for Georgia. Also a great move for him. Georgia has consistently produced amazing longcourse swimmers(arguably on par or better than Cal and Texas) and when you get to his level senior national teams are the goal.
Not sure that Georgia long course swimmers are better than Murphy, Adrian, Prenot, Pebley)
Kalisz, Hali, Mel, Litherland, Fink, Smoliga??? Not to mention pros who are coming to the program to train like Natalie Hinds and Andrew Wilson?
Not to mention Gunnar Bentz and Jay Litherland who are Olympians
You are wrong based on the data dcrabbe and college swimmer.
Well Andrew Wilson just chose to move. And didn’t Kalisz go swim for Bob Bowman for a couple years so that he could swim faster long course…?
UCSwim listed only guys then you brought girls into the mix. If you brought girls into the mix then Cal is much better… Franklin, Baker, Bilquist, Weitzel, Mclaughlin, Bootsma, Leverenz, Pelton, Osman.. which are the only ones I can think of of the top of my head. But the list goes deeper… much deeper in cals favor for Women and Men.
Just this past year alone Dave Durden put 18 USA national team swimmers/swims for 2018-2019. (I was to… Read more »
You lose all credibility when the first two women you list, Franklin and Baker, do not train with Cal. Franklin actually made a move to train with UGA (mostly for her boyfriend at the time I believe) and is now retired, and baker trains with team elite. I’m optimistic… go dogs
The argument was “produced” not actively train there ….which you could obviously tell by who I listed and by what was said by the other parties.
Franklin was not produced by cal, her best years were with her high school coach. On the other hand, my statement was a little exaggerated. Georgia has been though, over the past 20 years a consistent producer of many many national teamers, and with regards to longcourse vs shortcourse has always produced better longcourse times when compared to short course(void a few anecdotal exceptions such as smoliga and Taylor dale). Also a few other names to strengthen my point: Pace Clark, Chantal van landeghem. Brittany Maclean, Amanda weir, Megan Romano, Allison Schmitt, Kevin and Mick Litherland (both national teamers even though they did nothing at Ncaas), Melanie Marsalis, Hali flickinger, Kalisz, Bentz, the best litherland, Shannon vreeland, Javier Acevedo. I… Read more »
Oh I agree then. Definitely better at producing long course vs short course.
Pretty sure her 1:39.1 and 1:48.2 were Teri.
Already mentioned Litherland…
He looks like a linebacker, his neck is bigger than his head
Wow! HUGE surprise after last week. Congrats Jake.