Albert Gwo, the top sprinter and number 17 recruit overall in our pre-season rankings of the high school class of 2016, has elected to head an hour north from his hometown of Mountain View, California, to University of California, Berkeley.
Gwo is a senior at Los Altos High School, where he won both sprint freestyle events at the inaugural California State Championships in May 2015. He registered lifetime bests in the 50 yard free (19.90) as well as the 100 (44.60), setting the bar high for subsequent meet record-breaker hopefuls. Gwo went on to great success in the 50 meter free at Junior Nationals; he clocked a 23.12 to finish fourth in that final, and he anchored Palo Alto Stanford Aquatics’ 4x100m free relay with a strong 51.45.
The number one 50-freestyler in the class of 2016, Gwo’s best times include:
50y free – 19.90
100y free – 44.60
50m free – 23.12
100m free – 51.94
100y fly – 49.72
100m fly – 56.91
50m fly 26.17
Gwo is the first big commit for the Cal men’s team. The Bears have traditionally produced strong sprinters, but with half their NCAA runner-up 200 free relay having graduated (Seth Stubblefield and Fabio Gimondi), they welcome up-front speed to the bench. Gwo will join a deep squad that includes Tyler Messerschmidt, third-place finisher in the 50 free at 2015 NCAAs, Justin Lynch, Kyle Coan, and Long Gutierrez.
I’ve swum in a few masters meets against Gary Schatz. He just killed me, along with almost everyone else, despite being about 15 years older than me. Great athlete.
I am impressed by quite a few of the Asian swimmers out of CA. None are very tall or big, but they are fast. Watch out for Sean Lee out of SoCal next year. Must be the technique. Would be interesting to see if they can challenge the elite sprinters at Cal, as most of them are giants. Congrats.
Um…Vlad Morozov? Must be the Asian or Russian thing.
Fast swimmers come in all sizes and shapes. Always have. For every Alain Bernard and Florent Manadau, there’s a Vlad Morozov and a Gary Schatz (Eddie Reese’s Auburn “mighty mite” and the second person every under 20 sec in the 50 free).
I believe this is Tyler Messerschmidt’s last year at Cal.
poor kid
What…?
Congrats Albert! PASA is extremely proud of you.
I believe his 23.12 was in the 50m free, not 10m 😉
GO BEARS!