Men’s Recruiting Class Ranks Revisited: Top 12 Schools For 2016-2019

Every summer, we rank down the top recruiting classes snagged by each team. But what do those rankings look like four years later, when each swimmer has had an opportunity to complete a full NCAA career of competing and scoring?

We’ve already looked back at our top 20 individual athletes in the high school graduating class of 2015, ranked when they were high school juniors in the summer of 2014. Now it’s time to look back at our team-by-team recruiting class rankings to see which teams got most from their recruiting hauls.

• Revisiting Recruiting Ranks: Top 20 Athletes From High School Class of 2015

Back in July/August of 2015, we ranked out the top 12 recruiting classes nationwide. You can look back on our ranks here:

• #9-#12
• #5-#8
• #1-#4

We’ve republished each of the 12 classes below, verbatim from how they were listed in our 2015 post. Then we tracked down some stats on each class, plus a short analysis of each class along with any extra swimmers who wound up being part of the class.

Bear in mind that international swimmers throw a wrinkle into this sort of analysis, given the difficulty in projecting ahead of time when an international recruit will join an NCAA program and officially start their eligibility.

Note: The ‘number of NCAA Scorers’ section refers only to individual scorers, and only among athletes included in our original recruiting class rankings. Late additions to the classes are noted when we can find them.

12. MICHIGAN WOLVERINES

Top-tier Additions: Luke Papendick (transfer from Virginia), Kyle Dudzinski (transfer from Virginia), Javi Barrena, Mokhtar Al-Yamani,
The rest: Jordan Ross,  Stephen Holmquist

• NCAA finishes over 4 years: #12, #17, #8, #13
• Number of NCAA scorers in class: 0/6

This class was mostly predicated on two senior transfers, neither of whom wound up scoring at NCAAs. Al-Yamani was a relay scorer at NCAAs a few times.

11. MINNESOTA GOLDEN GOPHERS

Top-tier Additions: Michael Messner, James Tidd, Hunter Doerr, Bowen Becker, Brian Poon
The rest: Nick Plachinski, Calvin Greve

• NCAA finishes over 4 years: #20, #23, #15, #19
• Number of NCAA scorers in class: 1/7

Tidd, Doerr and Becker were framed as a trio of sprinters to build around – Becker certainly over-achieved, becoming one of the best sprinters in the nation by his final few years. He scored 51 points all by himself, not to mention his big relay impact. None of the others scored, but 4 of the 7 were still on the roster as seniors.

10. TENNESSEE VOLUNTEERS

Top-tier Additions: Ty Powers, Kyle Decoursey, Michael Reilman, Ethan Browne, Alec Lezcano
The rest: Sam Rice, Matthew Dunphy, Hayden Burns

• NCAA finishes over 4 years: #7, #20, #11, #11
• Number of NCAA scorers in class: 1/8 (plus diver Colin Zeng)

Decoursey only scored two points individually, but he had a much bigger relay impact than that. Zeng joined the program late and was a redshirt senior this year, but he was a massive NCAA diving scorer. Reilman was an NCAA relay scorer. Powers was a big name out of high school, and did make pretty solid SEC contributions. Browne was an NCAA qualifier as a freshman, but dropped off the roster after that.

9. NOTRE DAME FIGHTING IRISH

Top-tier Additions: #12 Tabahn Afrik, Ben Gorski, Matt Grauslys, Daniel Speers
The rest: Zachary Stump, Steven Shek, Connor Brown, Jack Russell, David Stewart, Maciej Olszewski

• NCAA finishes over 4 years: N/A, #25, #23, #36
• Number of NCAA scorers in class: 0/10

Afrik was a relay scorer at NCAAs, though no Notre Dame relays made the meet during his senior year. So was Speers, though he didn’t remain on the roster for his senior year. The rest of the class didn’t do much, and six of the ten no longer appear on the Fighting Irish roster.

8. FLORIDA GATORS

Top-tier Additions: #16 Brennan Balogh, Bayley Main, Ross Palazzo, Alex Katz (transfer from Michigan), Jan Switkowski (transfer from Virginia Tech), Alex Lebed, Samuel Smith (diving)
The rest: Grady Heath, Jack Szaranek, Stanley Wu

• NCAA finishes over 4 years: #3, #3, #5, #6
• Number of NCAA scorers in class: 1/9 (counting Switkowski)

Switkowski was a great pickup – he wound up part of a Florida senior class a year ago that led the nation in scoring. He chipped in 118 himself. The rest of the class didn’t do as much. Katz never appeared on the roster. Ranked recruits Palazzo and Balogh combined for zero NCAA points, though they had four invites between them and were productive SEC swimmers. Main scored on a couple of NCAA relays. Lebed also got an individual NCAA invite.

7. HARVARD CRIMSON

Top-tier Additions: Danny Tran, Brennan Novak, Sebastian Lutz, Gavin Springer, Logan Houck, Grant Goddard, Justin Wu
The rest:

• NCAA finishes over 4 years: #44, #27, #18, #8
• Number of NCAA scorers in class: 2/7

Novak and Houck both scored individually, Houck as a junior and Novak as a junior and senior. This class saw Harvard rise all the way from 44th to 8th at NCAAs. Goddard was on a scoring relay this year.

6. ARIZONA WILDCATS

Top-tier Additions: Blair Bish, Chad Idensohn, Chatham Dobbs, Mathias Oh, Marcello Quarante, Parks Jones, Matt Salerno, Grant Sanders
The rest: Matt Lujan, Keith Brazzell

• NCAA finishes over 4 years: #16, #24, #16 #16
• Number of NCAA scorers in class: 3/10

This class had three scorers… but unfortunately only one of the three was scoring for Arizona by the end. Dobbs scored all four years for the Wildcats, spanning two coaching staffs. Bish scored in his first two years before transferring out to Missouri State and scoring there as a senior. Sanders never scored for Arizona, but just put together a scoring swim after transferring to Florida. Attrition hit this class hard; six of the ten are no longer on the Wildcat roster.

5. AUBURN TIGERS

Top-tier Additions: Christian Selby, Liam McCloskey, Tommy Brewer, Ziv Kalontarov, Zach Apple
The rest: Bryan Lee, Christopher Simmons, Grady Ottomeyer, Russell Noletto, Sam Stewart

• NCAA finishes over 4 years: #10, #12, #12, #40
• Number of NCAA scorers in class: 3/10

Another class with some attrition among scorers. Brewer scored individually and finished his career with Auburn. Apple was a huge scorer, putting up 61 points for Auburn before transferring out as a senior and scoring 47 more for Indiana. Stewart scored his only 5 NCAA points with Auburn – he transferred to Texas but never scored there individually. McCloskey was a relay scorer at NCAAs, as was Kalontarov, though the latter didn’t finish out his career with Auburn.

4. STANFORD CARDINAL

Top-tier Additions: #7 Cole Cogswell, #11 Ryan Dudzinski, #17 Brad Zdroik, Matt Anderson, Abrahm Devine, Jack Walsh
The rest: n/a

• NCAA finishes over 4 years: #14, #5, #7, #15
• Number of NCAA scorers in class: 2/6

Devine wound up as the big scorer in this class, winning two NCAA titles individually and scoring 199.5 points. Dudzinski also scored individually in two seasons. Cogswell, Anderson and Zdroik all scored as relay members, though the highly-touted Cogswell never made NCAAs individually. This was a very stable class, as all six men finished out their careers on the roster this season.

3. USC TROJANS

Top-tier Additions: #4 Carsten Vissering, #6 Patrick Mulcare, #10 Alex Valente
The rest: Cash DeLoache, Daniel Mizrahi, Kyle Grissom, Tim Wynter, Walker Bell

• NCAA finishes over 4 years: #13, #6, #6, #20
• Number of NCAA scorers in class: 2/8

Vissering and Mulcare were both excellent scorers, putting up double digits in three of their four seasons individually. Grissom was a regular relay contributor over his four years and scored NCAA points that way. Valente never wound up scoring nationally. Five of the eight were on the roster as seniors.

2. CAL GOLDEN BEARS

Top-tier Additions: #1 Andrew Seliskar, #3 Michael Thomas, Carson Sand, #18 Nick Norman
The rest: David Puczkowski, Ken Takahashi

• NCAA finishes over 4 years: #2, #2, #2, #1
• Number of NCAA scorers in class: 4/6

This class very much lived up to the hype. The four top additions ended up combining for 300 individual points. Seliskar was the best swimmer in the nation in his senior season. Both Thomas and Norman needed a year or two to break into NCAA scoring, but made up for it after that with double-digit outputs. Sand also scored in each of his final two seasons. Takahashi was an individual invitee one season. All six of these men remained on the roster through their senior seasons.

1. TEXAS LONGHORNS

Top-tier Additions: #2 Townley Haas, #9 Ryan Harty, #20 Tate Jackson, John Shebat, Jeff Newkirk
The rest: Mason Tenney, Casey Melzer, Max Holter

• NCAA finishes over 4 years: #1, #1, #1, #2
• Number of NCAA scorers in class: 6/8

A very worthy group of the #1 overall ranking. Haas was the highest-scoring swimmer in the class with 198 individual points. Shebat had a huge college explosion to score 131. Harty, Newkirk and Jackson all scored double-digits over their careers, and Harty still has a year left after redshirting one. Holter added a point in his senior season. The only one who didn’t remain on the roster through their senior year was Melzer, who competed through his junior year.

RE-RANKING THE CLASSES

Certainly individual points don’t encapsulate everything a recruiting class brings to a program over four years. But they are the easiest way to rank the classes against each other four years later. Here’s a look at all the classes represented, ranked by individual points from all swimmers in this graduating class:

And our new top 12, purely in terms of individual NCAA points:

The far left column tracks each swimmer’s final rank within the class. The next column tracks their individual ranking in our top 20 recruits post. HM means “honorable mention.” UNR means “unranked” and INTL means “international”, as we don’t rank international swimmers in our top 20 post.

In the case of transfers, we’ve only awarded points to the school that the athlete earned while at that school – so a swimmer who transferred after two years will have their first two year’s worth of point totals count for their original school and their next two years for their second school.

#1 Texas

#2 Cal

#3 Indiana

#4 NC State

#5 Stanford

#6 USC

#7 Auburn

#8 Louisville

#9 Alabama

#10 Virginia

#11 Minnesota

#12 South Carolina

More recruiting rank analysis:

Women’s:

• Revisiting recruiting ranks: High school class of 2015
• Re-Ranking the recruiting classes: Collegiate class of 2016-2019
• Revisiting recruiting ranks: High school class of 2018
• All recruits, Classes of 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 (coming soon)

Men’s:

• Revisiting recruiting ranks: High school class of 2015 (coming soon)
• Revisiting recruiting ranks: High school class of 2018 (coming soon)
• All recruits, Classes of 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 (coming soon)