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Almost a year after committing to USC, Campbell McKean, the 14th-ranked boys recruit in the high school class of 2025, has flipped his verbal commitment to the University of Texas.
McKean swims for the Bend Swim Club in Bend, Oregon, is a member of the USA Swimming Junior National Team, and swam for the U.S. at the 2024 Junior Pan Pac Championships. There he won a silver medal in the 100 breaststroke , and also raced the 200 free, 100 fly, 200 IM, and on both the 400 free relay and 400 medley relay, flexing his versatility.
He also raced at the 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials, finishing 21st in the 100 breaststroke (1:01.00) and 26th in the 200 IM (2:01.30), both lifetime bests at his first Olympic Trials meet. He was the highest-placing junior in Indy in the 100 breaststroke by nine spots.
He is a four-time Oregon High School State Champion, winning the 200 IM and 100 back as a sophomore and the 100 breast and 200 IM as a junior, both in class 5A (for the state’s smaller high schools). Both swims were new OSAA Oregon High School records.
McKean swims for Caldera High School in Bend.
Best Times in Yards
- 100 breast – 53.36
- 200 breast – 1:59.63
- 200 IM – 1:44.23
- 400 IM – 3:46.55
- 100 fly – 48.00
- 200 fly – 1:46.75
- 50 free – 21.60
- 100 free – 45.08
- 200 free – 1:39.85
- 100 back – 49.12
McKean’s breaststroke has come a long way since his initial commitment article, where breaststroke wasn’t even mentioned. His best at that time was a 57.18, but in November 2023 he dropped that to 54.21, setting off a chain of improvements throughout his junior season.
McKean’s arrival for the new-look Longhorns comes in the same week when Max Goetsch, a sprinter with freestyle bests of 20.41/44.42/1:36.71 in the short freestyles, flipped his commitment from Texas to Cal in the same class, while Evan Conti flipped his commitment to Notre Dame.
New head coach Bob Bowman has made waves of change in a hurry in Austin, bringing in some big international commitments and having at least two domestic recruits for the class of 2025 look elsewhere.
While McKean is a versatile swimmer who should land as an All-American in the 200 IM, at least, the 100 breaststroke is a key get for Texas, as that’s where they have a gap headed into next season after Jake Foster‘s graduation. Foster was the Longhorns’ only entry in the 100 breast at NCAAs, as a 5th year. While Texas has a very good class of 2024 arriving on campus this fall, the best two they brought in this year are Cooper Lucas (54.18) and Jeremy Kelly (54.98), neither of whom were primarily recruited as breaststrokers.
The burden won’t be fully on McKean in the breaststroke group, though: a trio of swimmers Will Scholtz, Brayden Taivassalo, and Nate Germonprez all went 52s last year as freshmen, so one of them should find their way into the 51s this season.
Texas had a small class of three public commitments when Bowman took over. Besides Conti and Goetsch, who have both now committed elsewhere, John Simmons still lists Texas as his school of choice on his social media bios. Michael Gorey of the Carmel Swim Club and Calvin Fry from England have both committed to Texas in recent weeks.
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Hot take, he easily has one of the highest ceilings of his class
41 men on the team with approximately 9 scholarships. So basically the vast majority of the swimmers are paying UT to swim.
How true, never thought of it that way.
There are 41 men on this team. Based on the scholarships available most are getting next to nothing. Sad.
Couldn’t handle the grind of the Big Ten.
Wild take, must’ve been asleep when Texas joined the best conference in collegiate sports
Clearly you haven’t seen an Iowa-Minnesota football game in a blizzard in late November. Nothing compares.
41 on the current roster, 7 graduating, SEC roster limit of 23, how many incoming? Even I can do this math 🙂
Latest iteration of the settlement has a roster limit of 30
But its still up to the conference right? 30 is just the max.
And I imagine UT is sponsoring Full rides for the whole team.
Yeah after I posted that, someone from the SEC texted me to say it will be 22 men/30 women.
Let the chaos continue.
Braden, how reliable is that info? AD, coach or? Is that # “for certain” or a current proposal?
This was from a coach.
I don’t think anything is final until it’s signed in blood, but that seems to be the latest-and-greatest. Until it isn’t.
Insane to think the latest-and-greatest is still planned to start 2025-2026 season. Across college sports people are screaming for ‘stability’, this ain’t it.
Yeah the disconnect is that everyone is screaming that, but television ratings for football keep going up. So it’s not clear that ‘regular America’ actually craves the stability as much as they say they do.
Ha. Feel like there is a metaphor in there for, um, everything, not just football.
‘Football’ the product is so beyond the players on the field at this point. The machine will just keep churning.
The terms of the settlement are sealed by the court so not many “really” know. At any rate, more objections were lodged to the case yesterday. The madness goes on until Judge Wilken decides whether to grant preliminary approval or the case gets litigated next year.
I would not make the full ride assumption.
Well that is good news, but isn’t the limit determined by the conferences and not the settlement? I understand it is a byproduct of the settlement but I thought the SEC / Big Ten placed a limit of 22 and then went to 23. Regardless, this will still be an issue for some on the roster.
Texas will have a plan that will allow any “non-rostered” athletes to train with the team, not compete in dual meets but instead intra-squad and invites. Kids already pay their own way for school for the most part so money isn’t the issue. Allowing them to train and continue their dreams of swimming beyond high school – in whatever fashion that looks like in the future
They will still get that “team” environment just like current walkons. The school will probably provide some academic support from the athletic department and some gear.
Seems like a major liability though. Student-athletes have health insurance and access to athletic trainers in the case of illness and injuries sustained during their sport. Any “non-roster” swimmers would not have that same protection. They also wouldn’t have the same access to resources such as preferred scheduling, academic advisors/tutors, S&C coaches, and athletic dining halls.
There will be a difference between rostered and non-rostered spots. I think we are all guessing what those differences will be. What I hope I hope does not happen is coaches are forced to take a “One Year” approach to their rosters as seen in college basketball. Smaller rosters incentivizes and prioritizes bringing in transfers and older foreign athletes over developing high school athletes. (that is simply an observation about foreign athletes and not a statement about their value. They are generally older and further along their development curve. If I, as a coach, have limited spots to fill my roster, I’m selecting finished products over development projects).
With Texas starting to stack up Breastroke recruits, I really hope Bob is able to turn one into a legit threat to make the US team for 2028. That 100 race is wide open and in dire need of someone to break through
Germonprez will be one to watch in that regard. 24.1 at the pentathlon gets interesting when you look back and see that during their senior year, Caspar went 24.1 and Jake Foster went 24.3 at this same meet/period of the season.
I hope you’re right, but I think you’re making a massive leap in comparing pre-season time trial times.
Well, then look at the other 50 times he went. 20.3 in the 50 free and he was 18 on a flying start at NCAA’s. 21.3 50 fly and was going 19.8 50 fly at Big 12’s. I’ll be surprised if Germonprez can’t go a 22 breast split on the 200 medley relay.
not to mention he swam a 1:00 LC 100br at futures
Yeah, that’s actually the far more important datapoint as it pertains to this discussion.
Bro trying to extrapolate a 50 yard breast time trial to a 100 LCM this is desperate even for you😭
Dude it wasn’t me 😂 that was the other guy
Oh my bad, I saw what you mean.
But still, Germonprez went 1:00.4 this past summer, not gonna take a whole lot more for him to make a US international team in the event, with how the event has been moving the past few years
Disappointing that USC finally recruited a legit American swimmer and lost the commitment. They won’t get back to the top 10 without better recruiting.
USC is not a good program. Over the past decade it’s mainly been a refuge for near-retirement swimmers who can no longer do the work, or international swimmers with questionable relationships with doping.
Also very probably bright kids that wanna get a degree from USC and used swimming to get their foot in the door and then promptly retire. (I have mad respect for this btw)
Scholtz, Taivassalo, and Germanprez will all qualify for NCAA’s this season. Breaststroke will be a true strength for the team and McKean will have some great training partners when he arrives on The 40.
agree, at this point it seems the(for individual events) sprint fly and free are the Texas weaknesses.