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#12 Sam Hoover of North Carolina Aquatic Club is the fourth NC State verbal commitment for their men’s class of 2025 and their third in the last couple of days. He’s also the second North Carolina-based swimmer that head coach Braden Holloway has kept in-state for this class.
TOP TIMES
- 50y free – 20.30
- 100y free – 44.43
- 200y free – 1:37.84
- 500y free – 4:32.32
- 100y breast – 55.05
- 200y breast – 2:00.74
- 100y fly – 48.92
- 200y IM – 1:48.78
With some of the best sprint freestyle times in the class, Hoover is also one of the better breaststrokers in the class, an area in which NC State needs new speed.
At the 2019 North Carolina 3A HS Championships, Hoover won the 100 free (44.62) and the 100 breast (56.06). This was a far faster result compared to his freshman year individual performance (21.76 in the 50 free finals, 1:01.00 in the 100 breast finals). On relays at the 2019 meet, Hoover anchored with times of 20.13 and 44.82. This past summer at the 2019 Speedo Junior Nationals, Hoover placed eighth in the 100 free (50.72) and 23rd in the 100 breast (1:04.01).
NC State’s class of 2025 is off to a very fast start. Considering that their best SCY times are from their sophomore year of high school, here’s a quick glimpse at the class so far, times-wise (their strengths are largely in sprint events):
| 50 free | 100 free | 200 free | 100 back | 100 fly | 100 breast | 200 IM | |
| Arsenio Bustos | 20.59 | 44.87 | 1:39.54 | 49.43 | 50.50 | 55.38 | 1:48.35 |
| Aiden Hayes | 19.73 | 45.15 | 47.26 | 46.54 | |||
| Garrett Boone | 20.26 | 44.82 | 1:36.65 | 50.19 | 48.65 | 1:47.49 | |
| Sam Hoover | 20.30 | 44.43 | 1:37.84 | 48.92 | 55.05 | 1:48.78 |
Hoover will suit up with #2 Aiden Hayes, #9 Garrett Boone, and #17 Arsenio Bustos in NC State’s class of 2025. Notably, the Wolfpack’s first four commits are all part of our early Top 20 rankings from May.
See below for Hoover’s first Instagram story post teasing his announcement and then a screenshot from right after he announced. Hoover also shared that his final top choices were NC State, Indiana, and Alabama; three of the hottest sprint destinations in the country right now.
If you have a commitment to report, please send an email with a photo (landscape, or horizontal, looks best) and a quote to [email protected].
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Congrats Sam! You are a great kid and NC State is lucky to have you! I think you will do great things both in and out of the pool there!
let’s goo sam! big stuff coming your way! so much fun to train with you every day and see the swimmer you have come into
wahoowa more like wahoowas
So proud of you Sam! Far more than just a fast swimmer, you are a kind, supportive and generous teammate, a natural leader, and a huge asset to any team. Continue to make us all proud!
Yay!
That is wonderful for NCSTATE but I’m kind of surprised that more of the top swimmers are not branching out to some of the top (Academic) schools. Braden must be a heck of a recruiter!
Ask Christina Koch, who is about to take part in the first all female spacewalk with another astronaut, about NC State’s academics. She is a three time alum.
State is ranked the #34 best public school in the US
Virginia is ranked the #3 best public school in the US
https://www.instagram.com/p/B26__cagw0A/
#3 > #34 Not even close!
You can have it all at Virginia
Not on the same wavelength with UNC-CH, UVa, Michigan, Cal-B at all. Wonder whether they are. Or academically qualified to go to academically better colleges.
You realize UNC was on academic probation by the Southern Association of Colleges & schools recently ?
NCSU would never be on the same wavelength with UVa or UNC because the state of NC would not allow NCSU to have a Law/medical/public health/dental/pharmacy school. Its emphasis is on STEM and Agriculture. Unless you’re talking about liberal arts/humanities/business, objectively, UVa/UNC-CH does not actually have a case to be arrogant.
Sour grape flavored wahooWAS.
I think your comparisons of saying that it’s not a good academic school by comparing it to Duke and calling it 3rd-best “regionally” are disingenuous at best. The reality is, that in the year 2019, there are so many students going to college, that the flagship universities (call it top 2 public schools in any large state) will have very good academics. They’re too well funded, and there’s too much competition, for them to not. Anybody who wants to go to a school like NC State and get a good education can absolutely do so. Anybody who wants to go to a school like UNC and skate by just to get a degree and not really learn much, can also… Read more »
And it’s not like UNC-CH is out-of-reach for students at NCSU.
The middle 50% SAT data for incoming freshmen in 2019:
UNC: 1310-1480
NCSU: 1270-1410
I wasn’t referring to just UNC. I was referring to Yale, Harvard, MIT et al. I think NCSTATE is great but when you work as hard as these elite swimmers do I would venture to say they could use that work ethic to go to an elite school. Not knocking the kids but lack understanding. More than anything I don’t understand the early commitments. Good for state and Braden. Braden Keith are you a State alum? It sounds like I stepped on your toes.
So Confused, is NC State that different from Texas, Cal, Florida, or other top scoring program alternatives from an academic perspective? Aside from Duke, the best basketball/football players don’t go to the elite schools even if they could grades wise. It’s because the recruits value top coaching, potential for improvement and winning in their sports as much as their degree. True an Ivy education is on average worth more than say the equivalent degree from NC State, but if NC State gives you a better chance at winning an Olympic Gold medal, à la Ryan Held, it’s certainly rational to choose NC State over the Ivies.
Also, the Ivies (and MIT as a D3) don’t offer athletic scholarships. That can have a large impact on where one decides to go to school.
NC state is great academically especially for engineering and agriculture and it also makes a lot of sense for these NC guys cuz they get great in state tuition.
Surprised by so many sour grapes on here! I have no skin in this game and really don’t care other than seeing where kids are committing is fun to follow, but all of a sudden I like NC State better than its rivals bc their rivals look to be bitter and backstabbing. #annoyingcomments #happyforthekids #goodforNCState
Sounds like a bunch of these guys took trips together and all decided collectively to go to the same school. Forget individuality or what is best for them, they just follow each other. NC St does a good job of marketing and self promotion, and they have good results at the college level, but it also sounds like kids just following one another bc it’s cool.
It’s a little more than that – many of them, as NC swimmers, have known each other since they were young kids – going to Zones and Select camps together, staying in touch regularly through texting and social media, seeing each other at JO’s and then later on in their careers at Juniors. Don’t make rash assumptions when you clearly have no inside knowledge of the situation.
Except several committed are not from North Carolina.
How many other schools did they visit before committing?
that is what is called recruiting, swimmers feels like his is home and comfortable with the situation, who knows then if the reality is something else but nobody knows….. big city bright lights or sweet home alabama….. reality is sometimes found in the podium on the ncaas or the transfer portal…..
yeah, cause no one picks a school because their friends go there, or because their parents went there, or because it’s “prestigious” puh-lease. Half of my graduating class that went to Carolina went only because it was Carolina, and that was the only reason they needed.
Moreover, who are you to judge kids you don’t know for whether NCSU is the correct choice for them?
I do know several of them actually. You would hope these kids would pick a school based on what suits their needs and interests, not on where other recruits are going.
Bet money u don’t know me
Not even a little bit true
Yeah. Them darned kids can’t think for themselves or make sound decisions. That’s why we let them drive, right?