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Men’s Recruiting Ranks In-Progress Analysis: All Classes Through 2019 NCAAs

It’s a week of NCAA retrospectives: we’ve looked back at how the graduating senior class did over four NCAA seasons, comparing the data to our rank of the class as high school recruits in 2014. We’ve also taken a look back at team-by-team recruiting classes and our 2015 ranks. And we looked at the current crop of NCAA freshman and the early returns compared to our recruiting rank and re-rank from the past two years.

Since we’ve got the data compiled, we thought it was worth sharing a quick in-progress look at the remaining two classes and how they’ve scored individually over their NCAA careers.

Further reading:

We’ll also include this year’s freshmen and seniors to have all the data in one post. You can find further analysis of those classes above.

Notes:

  • The data included is only individual scoring at NCAAs. That’s not an exact measure of an athlete’s contribution to a program: many of these swimmers (and others not listed) were relay scorers at NCAAs, scored significant points at conference meets and provided great leadership and culture-building for their programs. This data isn’t a perfect analysis of the best recruits – it’s merely a quick look at the data we can compile.
  • Some of these athletes haven’t had as many scoring seasons as others in their class. Some redshirted a season and have more remaining seasons. Some deferred their enrollment as freshmen. Some sat out a year with a transfer. Some turned pro early. Some will turn pro early. Some are hard to pigeonhole into a specific class, international athletes especially. We did our best to group athletes where they best fit. Again, this isn’t a hard-and-fast ranking of value – it’s just the best data we can compile.
  • The ranks are from our recruit rankings, typically compiled when these athletes were high school juniors. We don’t include internationals in those rankings, as it’s difficult to figure out if and when internationals will join the NCAA and which class they should be grouped with before they appear in the NCAA. Do bear in mind that our rankings were done well over a year before any of these athletes appeared in NCAA competition, so if you do have a quibble with a specific rank, you may want to check how fast that athlete actually was when the ranking was done before you get too livid. Unranked recruits showing massive improvement curves are some of the best stories in the NCAA year-in and year-out, and one reason we rank recruits is so we can better see which athletes had great rises during their college careers.
  • All that said, compiling these ranks is a lot of data entry and a lot of research. If we missed anyone, or mis-classified anyone with the wrong class or with the wrong domestic/international tag, please let us know in the comments and we’ll update our data as soon as possible!

Seniors (High School Class of 2015, College Class of 2019)

Ranked Recruits

Rank Name College Team Total NCAA Points 2016 NCAA Points 2017 NCAA Points 2018 NCAA Points 2019 NCAA Points
1 Andrew Seliskar Cal 192 42 43 47 60
2 Townley Haas Texas 198 55 46 53 44
3 Mike Thomas Cal 68 0 9 27 32
4 Carsten Vissering USC 50 1 16 16 17
5 Aidan Burns Georgia 0 no invite 0 0 0
6 Patrick Mulcare USC 48 13 16 16 3
7 Cole Cogswell Stanford 0 no invite no invite no invite no invite
8 Thomas Brewer Auburn 2 no invite 0 2 0
9 Ryan Harty Texas 51 24 redshirt 3 24
10 Alex Valente USC 0 0 0 no invite 0
11 Ryan Dudzinski Stanford 2 0 1 1 no invite
12 Tabahn Afrik Notre Dame 0 no invite no invite no invite
13 Ross Palazzo Florida 0 no invite 0 no invite no invite
14 Cody Bekemeyer South Carolina 4 0 4 0 no invite
15 Bowen Anderson Kentucky 0 no invite no invite no invite no invite
16 Brennan Balogh Florida 0 0 0 no invite 0
17 Brad Zdroik Stanford 0 no invite 0 0 no invite
18 Nick Norman Cal 32 0 0 16 16
19 Jake Miller Louisville 0
20 Tate Jackson Texas 25 0 1 12 12

Unranked Recruits

Name College Team Total NCAA Points 2016 NCAA Points 2017 NCAA Points 2018 NCAA Points 2019 NCAA Points
John Shebat Texas 131 12 34 34 51
Abrahm Devine Stanford 119.5 18.5 21 46 34
Zach Apple Auburn/Indiana 108 22.5 38.5 47
Ian Finnerty Indiana 100 1 0 51 48
Justin Ress NC State 52.5 4.5 23 25
Bowen Becker Minnesota 51 19 32
Robert Howard Alabama 49 19 30
Brendan Casey Virginia 33 33
Jeff Newkirk Texas 27 2 9 16
Jack Saunderson Towson 26 1 11 14
Zach Harting Louisville 24.5 6 5.5 13
Chatham Dobbs Arizona 23.5 7 2.5 3 11
Zach Fong Virginia 19 5 14
Mark Andrew Penn 19 1 18
Blair Bish Arizona/Missouri State 18 9 2 7
Brennan Novak Harvard 14 3 11
Devon Nowicki Oakland 13 13
Jordan O’Brien Missouri 11 11
Carson Sand Cal 8 7 1
Sam Stewart Auburn/Texas 5 5
Kanoa Kaleoaloha Florida State 5 5
Jacob Wielinski Missouri 4 4
Bryce Keblish Virginia 4 4
Luke Mankus Missouri 4 4
Logan Houck Harvard 3 3
Noah Hensley Florida State/NC State 3 3
Jake Armstrong West Virginia 2.5 2.5
Kyle Decoursey Tennessee 2 2
Max Holter Texas 1 1
James Bretscher NC State 1 1

International Recruits

Name College Team Total NCAA Points 2016 NCAA Points 2017 NCAA Points 2018 NCAA Points 2019 NCAA Points
Vini Lanza Indiana 131 13 21 45 52
Andreas Vazaios NC State 131 37 53 41
Fynn Minuth South Carolina 43.5 18 9.5 16
Marcelo Acosta Louisville 43 7 23 13
Mikel Schreuders Missouri 25 7 18
Mark Nikolaev Grand Canyon 23 7 16
James Guest Georgia 22 11 11
Laurent Bams Alabama 13.5 4 4.5 0 5
Will Pisani Florida State 9 9
Metin Aydin Hawaii 8 2 6
Angel Martinez Texas A&M 4 4
Rodrigo Correia Georgia Tech 1 1

Juniors (High School Class of 2016, College Class of 2020)

Ranked Recruits

Rank Name College Team Total NCAA Points 2017 NCAA Points 2018 NCAA Points 2019 NCAA Points
1 Maxime Rooney Florida 28 13 0 15
2 Michael Jensen Cal 10 2 0 8
3 Grant Shoults Stanford 44 26 18
4 True Sweetser Stanford 29 6 11 12
5 Jack Xie Cal 0 0 no invite no invite
6 Mark Jurek USC 0 no invite no invite no invite
7 Thomas Anderson Arizona 0 no invite no invite 0
8 Greg Brocato UNC 0 no invite no invite no invite
9 James Jones Michigan 0 no invite 0 no invite
10 Andrea Vergani Cal 0 no invite
11 Ethan Young Cal 0 no invite no invite no invite
12 Jeremy Babinet Michigan 2.5 no invite 2.5 0
13 Taylor Abbott Tennessee 0 0 no invite no invite
14 Charlie Swanson Michigan 22 0 13 9
15 Thomas Cope Michigan 29 no invite 14 15
16 David Crossland Auburn 0 no invite no invite no invite
17 Albert Gwo Cal 0 no invite no invite no invite
18 Benjamin Ho Stanford 0 no invite 0 no invite
19 James Murphy Stanford 0 no invite no invite 0
20 Ted Schubert Virginia 7 0 5 2

Unranked Recruits

Name College Team Total NCAA Points 2017 NCAA Points 2018 NCAA Points 2019 NCAA Points
Dean Farris Harvard 101 18 30 53
Coleman Stewart NC State 86 3 34 49
Walker Higgins Georgia 27 2 25
Zachary Poti Arizona State 19 2 17
Cameron Craig Arizona State 18 14 4
Benjamin Walker Texas A&M 17 5 12
Miles Smachlo Michigan 17 1 16
Jacob Montague Michigan 11 6 5
Noah Lense Ohio State 9 9
Hank Poppe Stanford 9 9
Jack McIntyre NC State 6 6
Andrew Loy Ohio State 5 5
Grant Sanders Arizona/Florida 1 1
Matthew Garcia Tennessee 1 1

International Recruits

Name College Team Total NCAA Points 2017 NCAA Points 2018 NCAA Points 2019 NCAA Points
Felix Auboeck Michigan 95 40 35 20
Zheng Quah Cal 79 31 19 29
Pawel Sendyk Cal 63 13 15 35
Javier Acevedo Georgia 45 6 18 21
Mohamed Samy Indiana 36.5 4 21 11.5
Khader Baqlah Florida 26 16 10
Zane Waddell Alabama 15 5 5 5
Kane Follows Hawaii 12 12
Cam Tysoe Wisconsin 7 7
Itay Goldfaden South Carolina 6.5 5.5 1
Joe Clark Virginia 6 3 3
Santiago Grassi Auburn 6 6
Olli Kokko Hawaii 5 5
Etay Gurevich Louisville 4 4
Andrej Barna Louisville 4 1 3
Jorge Iga Arizona 4 4
Mario Koenigsperger USC 4 4

Quick Analysis: This hasn’t been a great class so far, with a lot of our ranked recruits still without even an individual NCAA invite. The two big unranked risers have been Dean Farris (1:38.7 in the 200 free and 48.6 in backstroke when we ranked) and Coleman Stewart (48.2/1:47 in back and 48.5 in fly when we ranked). But the strength of the class has been internationals, four of whom have scored more point than our best ranked domestic recruit.

Interestingly, this should’ve been a great class for Cal with 5 of the top 20 recruits. But two don’t even appear on the roster anymore. They’ve made up for it with internationals Pawel Sendyk and Zheng Quah, though. Texas, meanwhile, has had no swimming scorers in this class through three years after getting none of the top 20 recruits in this class.

Sophomores (High School Class of 2017, College Class of 2021)

Ranked Recruits

Rank Name College Team Total NCAA Points 2018 NCAA Points 2019 NCAA Points
1 Ryan Hoffer Cal 71.5 26.5 45
2 Sean Grieshop Cal 59 10 49
3 Matthew Hirschberger Stanford 0 0 0
4 Camden Murphy Georgia 25 0 25
5 Michael Taylor Florida 0 0 redshirt
6 Austin Katz Texas 52 35 17
7 Grant House Arizona State 9.5 3 6.5
8 Jake Sannem USC/Texas 5 no invite 5
9 Paul DeLakis Ohio State 33 6 27
10 Christopher Yeager Texas 0 0 0
11 Bryce Mefford Cal 42 26 16
12 Sam Pomajevich Texas 24 24 0
13 Brennan Pastorek Stanford 4 4 0
14 Alex Liang Stanford 5 0 5
15 Trenton Julian Cal 48 12 36
16 Daniel Carr Cal 45 13 32
17 Michael Zarian Harvard 0 no invite 0
18 Nicolas Albiero Louisville 59 22 37
19 Spencer Rowe Auburn 0 no invite 0
20 Corban Rawls Harvard 0 no invite no invite

Unranked Recruits

Name College Team Total NCAA Points 2018 NCAA Points 2019 NCAA Points
Zach Yeadon Notre Dame 34 27 7
Brooks Fail Arizona 16 16
Clark Beach Florida 13 13
Mark Theall UNLV/Texas A&M 13 13
Johannes Calloni Stanford 9 9
Cameron Auchinachie Denver 7 7
Eric Knowles NC State 6 6
Sam Iida Arizona 4 4
Robby Giller Virginia 2 2
Greg Reed Georgia 2 2
Trent Pellini Purdue 2 2

International Recruits

Name College Team Total NCAA Points 2018 NCAA Points 2019 NCAA Points
Ricardo Vargas Michigan 45 23 22
Caio Pumputis Georgia Tech 41 41
Evgenii Somov Louisville 27 12 15
Brandonn Almeida South Carolina 15 15
Robert Glinta USC 14 14
Hugo Gonzalez Auburn 7 7
Gabriel Fantoni Indiana 7 7
Daniel Sos Louisville 3 3
Gus Borges Michigan 2 2
Bruno Blaskovic Indiana 1 1
Christian Ferraro Georgia Tech 1 1

Quick Analysis: in contrast, this has been an awesome domestic class through two years. #1-ranked Ryan Hoffer has outscored everyone by more than 12, and almost all of our top 20 have either scored individually or on a relay at NCAAs in their first two years. There aren’t too many unranked standouts yet, though a few of them seem to be improving rapidly. It hasn’t been a huge class of internationals, especially with Brandonn Almeida returning to Brazil.

Cal’s 5 top-20 ranked recruits have already combined for 265.5 individual – that’s more than most senior classes had scored in four years, based on our analysis of the senior classes. Only the outgoing seniors from Texas (430), Cal (300) and Indiana (278) scored more over four years than the current Cal sophomores have over two.

Freshmen (High School Class of 2018, College Class of 2022)

Ranked Recruits

Rank Name College Team Total NCAA Points 2019 NCAA Points
1 Reece Whitley Cal 29 29
2 Drew Kibler Texas 25 25
3 Alexei Sancov USC 0 no invite
4 Max McHugh Minnesota 33 33
5 Daniel Krueger Texas 15 15
6 Trey Freeman Florida 2 2
7 Cody Bybee Arizona State 0 no invite
8 Patrick Callan Michigan 7 7
9 Jack Levant Stanford 0
10 Daniel Roy Stanford 5 5
11 Kieran Smith Florida 25 25
12 Robert Finke Florida 5 5
13 Michael Brinegar Indiana 17 17
14 Matthew Willenbring Texas 0 0
15 Noah Henry Arizona State 0 no invite
16 Jason Park Texas 0 no invite
17 Danny Kovac Missouri 0 0
18 Khalil Fonder Arizona State 0 no invite
19 Andrew Abruzzo Georgia 0 0
20 Mason Gonzalez Stanford 0 no invite
HM Shaine Casas Texas A&M 10 10
HM Andrew Koustik Texas 0 0
HM Zach Brown NC State 0 no invite
HM Jack Dahlgren Missouri 0 0
HM Will Davis Florida 0 0
HM Jack Franzman Indiana 0 no invite

Unranked Recruits

Name College Team Total NCAA Points 2019 NCAA Points
Zane Backes Indiana 14 14
Mikey Calvillo Indiana 7 7
Charlie Scheinfeld Texas 6 6
Mitchell Whyte Louisville 6 6
Raunak Khosla Princeton 6 6
Casey Storch Virginia 4 4

International Recruits

Name College Team Total NCAA Points 2019 NCAA Points
David Schlicht Arizona 22 22
Nyls Korstanje NC State 9 9
Kacper Stokowksi Florida 9 9
Antani Ivanov Virginia Tech 5 5
Victor Johansson USC 3 3

 

More recruiting rank analysis:

Women’s:

Men’s:

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Jay Ryan
5 years ago

The Cal recruit for the junior class Albert Gwo never matriculated at Cal. He swims for Columbia.

Reid
Reply to  Jay Ryan
5 years ago

Neither did Andrea Vergani. In fact he never even finished high school in the US. That class also included Aukai Lileikis who didn’t make it past the first semester, and Xie has seemingly been in decline since he arrived in the US. Jensen and Young are headscratchers though.

Jay ryan
Reply to  Reid
5 years ago

Mike Jensen at 19.1/42.1 SCY and 22.0/48.7 LCM is nothing to sneeze at, especially with his
excellent relay swims. Ethan Young has been steadily improving and is now at 46.1/1:41.4 backstrokes right on the NCAA bubble so I am not scratching my head too much. Lileikis is still swimming fast (recently went 45.73 fly at Northwest sectionals) but was apparently unhappy away from home. He is tentatively listed on the Hawaii roster but hasn’t represented them yet.

Cmon
Reply to  Reid
5 years ago

Jensen isn’t a headscratcher he just didn’t improve a TON and can only Sprint now. Still won NCAA on a relay and several top 3 relay finishes. Won consys in 19.1 and split an 18.5. think he was 19.6 in HS?

Wowthatsbad
5 years ago

Julian has impressed me so much, look for him to make big moves next year. Also glad to see Hoffer killing it.

Longhorn
Reply to  Wowthatsbad
5 years ago

I too am happy for Ryan Hoffer as he seemed to be enjoying the meet and contributing to Cals relays but to say he’s “killing it” is not accurate. Swimmers usually measure their success in terms of improvement. Ryan Hoffer swam a best time in the 50 free by a little over a tenth of a second but is still a half a second away from his best time in the 100 free from 3 years ago! His 100 fly was also not his best. So he’s looking better than last year but hasn’t “killed it” until he can show some best times.

Wowthatsbad
Reply to  Longhorn
5 years ago

Oh man so dissapointed he can’t repeat one of the fastest 100 freestyles ever. Ryan carried the relays hard, and scored more points than last year so I would def say he killed it.

Longhorn
Reply to  Wowthatsbad
5 years ago

Just stating facts. I would be shocked if Hoffer himself thinks he “killed it.” To describe a 6th place finish in arguably your best event that’s 6/10 slower than your best time 3 years ago ad “killing it” is in my opinion, downplaying the swimmers who truly killed it. Dean Ferris. Dropped 2 seconds in one year in the 200 free to crush all records. What?! He went on to drop 2 seconds in One year to WIN the 100 free and dropped over a second in the 100 back in one year to win the 100 back. Dean absolutely killed it. Ryan, improved on last year. Good for him.

Wowthatsbad
Reply to  Longhorn
5 years ago

Sorry Hoffer killed Texas.

Longhorn
Reply to  Wowthatsbad
5 years ago

Nope. Texas killed texas.

Cmon
Reply to  Wowthatsbad
5 years ago

He carried the relays hard? He was out split by ress who was racing him and seliskar who went after him on the 200 fr relay. Kind of hard to figure out who was the 50 champ after looking at splits for that relay. Also seli out split him on the 400 fr relay.

Benedict Arnold Schwarzenegger
Reply to  Cmon
5 years ago

He had two huge medley that splits where he ran down everyone but the winners. What else would you call that?

2 Cents
Reply to  Cmon
5 years ago

I can figure out who the 50 champ was pretty easily. Just refresh the results page or clear your cache (I just use incognito mode in chrome), then I scroll until I can find the 50 Free in the left hand column (usually under the 1st full day of events under “200 IM Finals”), click on that, then look over to the right and it should have the results listed there. I almost always look at the very top next to the “1” and I can find out who won the event. I have found that the winner is never listed next to the “2” or the “8”. Also, I have always found the winner is ALWAYS listed. Just an… Read more »

Benedict Arnold Schwarzenegger
Reply to  Longhorn
5 years ago

> Swimmers usually measure their success in terms of improvement.

Is that so? How do you get to decide what “success” is for every athlete? Do you get to be the one to tell Michael Phelps he wasn’t a success in 2012 and 2016 because he didn’t improve his best times? Or Katie Ledecky that she’s not technically “killing it” when she sets Worlds medal records but isn’t setting personal bests in everything?

I’m sure Hoffer is weeping into his NCAA Championship ring that he was the fastest high schooler ever and now is only one of the best college swimmers in the country swimming for the nation’s best team.

Longhorn
Reply to  Benedict Arnold Schwarzenegger
5 years ago

Ya… I had a feeling World records were going to get mentioned next. Listen. We’re not talking world records here. We’re not talking not beating a time that won an Olympic gold medal. The lack of perspective here is starting to get annoying. No swimmer who sets an age group record expects or wants that to be their best time for years to come. you are taking my comment out of context. Hoffer did well. As I said before I am truly excited as a swim fan that Hoffer is beginning to get back on track. And I would imagine he is very happy about his team championship…congratulations to Cal.

PK Doesn't Like His Long Name
5 years ago

The combined top 20 juniors (61 points) came perilously close to getting outscored by Seliskar at NCAAs this year. That’s wild.

iLikePsych
Reply to  PK Doesn't Like His Long Name
5 years ago

Angered by the lack of faith shown by His followers, Dean Farris cast down divine retribution upon the top 20 beings foolish enough to be ranked before Him.

About Jared Anderson

Jared Anderson

Jared Anderson swam for nearly twenty years. Then, Jared Anderson stopped swimming and started writing about swimming. He's not sick of swimming yet. Swimming might be sick of him, though. Jared was a YMCA and high school swimmer in northern Minnesota, and spent his college years swimming breaststroke and occasionally pretending …

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