We’re now four years past our first shot at ranking each team’s NCAA recruiting class, and it’s time to look back at how each of our top 12 teams fared in the years since.
We looked back on our rankings of the top 10 individual athletes in the class here:
Back in the summer of 2013, we looked at that same class of swimmers, this time ranking out the top 12 recruiting classes for individual NCAA schools. Now, we look back at how those recruiting classes impacted each school along the way.
You can find our recruiting class rankings from July of 2013 below:
We’ve republished each class below, verbatim from how they were listed in our 2013 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.
12. Purdue Boilermakers
Top Names: Filip Bujoczek (international), Josh Ehrman, Austin Flager
Rest of the Class: Josh Brooks, Ted Curtiss, Colin Mothersead, James Nguyen, Matt Quinlan, Alex Toetz
- NCAA Finishes Over 4 Years: #27, #17, #43, #13
- Number of NCAA Scorers In Class: 0/9
The key pickup in this class was Poland’s Filip Bujoczek, who was a European Champs qualifier and a Junior Worlds medalist, but who never transferred his long course speed to short course. Austin Flager was the only member of this class to appear at NCAAs, doing so in relays his freshman and sophomore years.
11. Minnesota Golden Gophers
Top Names: Jakub Maly (international), Daryl Turner, Nicolas Hatanaka
Rest of the Class: Erick Huft, Nick Orf, Noah Busch, Ian Gordon, Bryce Boston
- NCAA Finishes Over 4 Years: #22, #25, #20, #23
- Number of NCAA Scorers In Class: 1/8 (Maly plus diver Matt Barnard)
Austria’s Jakub Maly was a scorer in the IMs even as those events became insanely fast on the NCAA level. The rest of the class never got to that level invidually, but Turner, Hatanaka, Busch and Gordon were all relay contributors along with Paul Fair. This class’s biggest contribution ended up coming from Australian diver Matt Barnard, who ended up putting up 61 individual points over four years.
10. Indiana Hoosiers
Top Names: Max Irwin, Jackson Miller, Anze Tavcar (international)
Rest of the Class: Robert Glover, Bradley Stamper
- NCAA Finishes Over 4 Years: #10, #12, #9, #7
- Number of NCAA Scorers In Class: 1/5 (Tavcar plus South Carolina transfer Marwan el-Kamash and diver Josh Arndt)
Anze Tavcar was a rock-solid sprinter for several years, though he struggled in his senior season Marwan el-Kamash transferred in to score points in 2017 and diver Josh Arndt put up points despite not being included in our original class rankings. Irwin, Glover and Miller all made relay contributions at NCAAs as well as Indiana rocketed into the top 10 over this class’s run.
9. Wisconsin Badgers
Top Names: Matt Hutchins (international), Nick Caldwell (transfer), Sean Maloney (international), Cannon Clifton, Brett Pinfold, Alex Delakis
Rest of the Class: Ryan Barsanti, Andrew Suchla (diving), Harrison Tran
- NCAA Finishes Over 4 Years: #33, #21, #18, #18
- Number of NCAA Scorers In Class: 3/9 (Hutchins, Clifton, Pinfold)
New Zealand’s Matt Hutchins was a distance star, making the NCAA’s top 8 in the mile two years running. Texas high school prospects Cannon Clifton and Brett Pinfold both also came through with points and big relay swims. Meanwhile Barsanti and Tran both made relay contributions. Suchla eventually scored in diving, but only after transferring to LSU after his freshman year.
8. Louisville Cardinals
Top Names: Josh Quallen, Trevor Carroll, David Boland, Grigory Tarasevich (international, US trained), Aaron Greene, Mihael Vukic (international)
Rest of the Class: Christian Garkani, Brennen Berger, Nicholas Hasemann, Jake Schultz, Joe Brown, Matthias Lindenbauer (international), Nolan Smith, Samuel Blair, Ryan Massey, Estefan Albiero
- NCAA Finishes Over 4 Years: #11, #15, #11, #11
- Number of NCAA Scorers In Class: 3/16 (Quallen, Carroll, Tarasevich)
This was a huge class that didn’t see too much attrition over the years. Josh Quallen, Trevor Carroll and Grigory Tarasevich all turned into reliable individual NCAA scorers and Lindenbauer a perennial relay leg. Greene also made NCAA appearances as Louisville hovered right on the outside of the top 10.
7. Arizona Wildcats
Top Names: Renny Richmond, Thane Maudslien, Carson Brindle, Bradley Tandy (JuCo transfer)
Rest of the Class: Gage Crosby, Tyler Fowler, Jason Alentado
- NCAA Finishes Over 4 Years: #7, #13, #16, #24
- Number of NCAA Scorers In Class: 1/7 (Tandy)
Richmond was ranked as one of the top prospects in the nation, and though he was a regular relay piece, he never evolved into more than that. Brad Tandy was well worth it in this class, though. The junior college transfer tied for the NCAA 50 free title and was a relay monster for his two seasons in Tuscon. The scoring numbers don’t quite do this class justice either, as both Maudslien and Fowler finished 17th at NCAAs once.
6. Tennessee Volunteers
Top Names: Luke Percy (international), Kacper Majchrzak (international), Evan Pinion, David Heron
Rest of the Class: Austin Hirstein, Tyler Mills
- NCAA Finishes Over 4 Years: #15, #14, #7, #20
- Number of NCAA Scorers In Class: 3/6 (Percy, Pinion, Heron)
This is a good class that could have been a great one. Percy was an NCAA scorer in his one and only season in Knoxville. Pinion and Heron both scored at points in their careers, but struggled with injuries and availability. The good news is both have taken redshirt seasons and could add to their points hauls next year as well.
5. Stanford Cardinal
Top Names: Jimmy Yoder, Connor Black, Max Williamson, Charlie Wiser
Rest of the Class: Justin Buck, Spencer DeShon, Jonathan DesCombes, Daniel Le, Travis Johns
- NCAA Finishes Over 4 Years: #9, #6, #14, #5
- Number of NCAA Scorers In Class: 1/9 (Yoder plus diver Bradley Christensen)
The first three all made multiple NCAA appearances, but only Jimmy Yoder scored individual points. Wiser split his time between water polo and swimming but only competed two years with the swim team. Tom Kremer technically scored as a senior this past year, but he wasn’t a part of this recruiting class, graduating high school in 2012 and taking a redshirt year in 2015-2016.
4. Auburn Tigers
Top Names: Kyle Darmody, Michael Duderstadt, Joe Patching (international), Alex Press (international),
Rest of the Class: William Anderson, Forrest Davis, Taylor Copeland, Alex Goerzen, Alan Rabstejnek
- NCAA Finishes Over 4 Years: #6, #9, #10, #12
- Number of NCAA Scorers In Class: 3/9 (Darmody, Duderstadt, Patching)
Auburn has dropped in NCAA place recently, but this class specifically came through well. Kyle Darmody was one of the nation’s best sprinters, though he fell off some late in his career. Michael Duderstadt was an All-American breaststroker and Joe Patching was very productive, especially at the conference level.
3. California Golden Bears
Top Names: Ryan Murphy, Sven Campbell, Long Gutierrez, Janardan Burns
Rest of the Class: Jonathan Fiepke, Dillon Williams, Harrison Thai, Hunter Cobleigh, Henry Chung (JuCo transfer)
- NCAA Finishes Over 4 Years: #1, #2, #2, #2
- Number of NCAA Scorers In Class: 3/9 (Murphy, Gutierrez, Cobleigh)
As we noted in our rankdown of individual swimmers, Ryan Murphy was the most valuable swimmer in the class, sweeping NCAA backstroke titles in the 100 and 200 over his four years. Long Gutierrez and Hunter Cobleigh were productive, and Janardan Burns made NCAAs, though he didn’t score individually.
2. Texas Longhorns
Top names: Jack Conger, Clark Smith, William Glass, Matt Ellis (transfer), Will Licon
Rest of the class: Chris Scheaffer, Cory Loria, Hayden Henry, Alec Willrodt, Andrew Skowronek, Patrick Dunne, Austin Vacek
- NCAA Finishes Over 4 Years: #2, #1, #1, #1
- Number of NCAA Scorers In Class: 5/12 (Conger, Smith, Glass, Ellis, Licon plus diver Mark Anderson)
There’s no doubt about it, this turned out to be the best recruiting class of the bunch. This was the group that powered Texas’s three-peat of NCAA titles, and they’ll leave some big shoes to fill next year. Jack Conger won 9 NCAA titles and put up 160 individual points. Will Licon was easily the best swimmer not ranked in our top 10 prospects, winning 7 NCAA titles and scoring 194.5 points – more than anyone in the class outside of Murphy. Clark Smith had his ups and downs, but was a massive asset. Matt Ellis was only around for three years after transferring from Georgia, but did plenty of damage. Will Glass was a solid contributor, though he fell off in productivity late in his career. And Mark Anderson regularly kept Texas near the top of the NCAA contenders in diving points.
1. USC Trojans
Top Names: Michael Domagala, Steven Stumph, Reed Malone, Dylan Carter (semester), Santo Condorelli, David Morgan, Yakov Toumarkin (international)
- NCAA Finishes Over 4 Years: #8, #4, #13, #6
- Number of NCAA Scorers In Class: 5/7 (Condorelli, Stumph, Carter, Domagala, Malone)
This class has seen it’s cumulative impact sink just a bit due to Olympic-year redshirts from Santo Condorelli and Dylan Carter. But both have been highly-productive swimmers and still have their seniors years to add more results. Reed Malone was a relay hero for several years even if he had a rough senior outing. Same goes for Michael Domagala. Steven Stumph took awhile to get going, but turned out to be a very useful breaststroker. The big hit for this class was that Israeli superstar Tourmarkin never actually competed in the NCAA, though he did represent Trojan Swim Club for a brief period of time.
USC Men’s Swimming continues to recruit some of the strongest talent in the nation.
Great swimmers make great coaches
What happened to Carson Brindle?
I wondered the same thing… they could have had some really good relays this year had he continued and improved.
Purdue the only school to not get one of their swimmers to NCAA’s. Continued poor coaching there.
People forget that Michael Hixon was part of Texas’s stellar recruiting class and won two titles before transferring after his freshman year.
Interesting to see NC State did not have top 12 recruiting class(es) and end up at 4th over the past two seasons
swimfan – that’s slanted by internationals. It’s harder to track and account for internationals, as often nobody knows they’re coming until they arrive on campus, or they come mid-season.
Interesting Connor Black was not even on the roster this year for Stanford
I’m a bit fuzzy, but didn’t he get hurt last year? Maybe he never got healed up enough to make it worth it.
Another interesting stat would be how many of the guys stayed for all 4 years and swam. Ive noticed CAL has had a few of their top recruits not make it through all 4 years of swimming (Sven, Kyle Gornay, Janardan)
Kyle stayed at Cal, just opted to retire. Now he’s a frat star.