On the same weekend, cross-town rivals Stanford and Cal both added big-time recruits, though a shared metropolitan area is one of the few similarities that the two have.
Stanford snagged Sean Duggan out of the Highlander Aquatic Club in Florida, who will continue to replenish their sprint crew after they were hit hard by graduation after last year. Cal, on the other hand received a verbal commitment from Jameson Lyon, a distance swimmer from the in-state North Coast Aquatics, who is a distance specialist who will continue to build the distance group that Cal has put some effort into these past few recruiting seasons.
Duggan, the future Stanford man, has bests of 20.59/44.52/1:38.94. It remains to be seen where this year’s monstrous Stanford freshman class will shake out with relays, but Duggan should definitely be a contender for relay spots. With a year still left to go (and with male sprinters tending to fully-develop later in their careers), he likely won’t have to wait much longer than his sophomore year to earn a relay spot.
Lyon, on the other hand, will add to the Cal distance freestyle group, which still sounds odd given that their 2011 NCAA Championship was built almost exclusively on sprints. Yet the Golden Bears are putting together a very good young distance group that Lyon will become a part of. He’s already got bests of 4:28.10 (done as a sophomore) in the 500 and a 9:18.35 in the 1000.
The addition of Lyon to the group that includes Jeremy Bagshaw, the Hinshaw Brothers, and (to some extent) Sam Metz, Cal now must see the freestyles 200-yards-and-longer as one of their strengths.
On cs.com it says Nick Dillinger is going to Cal. Big pickup.
The Bears also got #49 Scott Shimomura, another distance swimmer.