14:37 1650 Freestyler Liam Custer Sends Verbal to Stanford’s Class of 2026

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Sarasota Sharks 17-year-old Liam Custer has announced his commitment to Stanford’s class of 2026. Custer was one of two huge Commitments to the Stanford men’s team today, along with Flood Aquatics Swim Team’s Josh Zuchowski. The pair of commitments to Stanford is massive for the program, as Custer and Zuchowski are SwimSwam’s #3 and #2 recruits in the class of 2022 respectively.

“I am extremely excited to announce my commitment to swim and study at Stanford University! It has been my dream to attend Stanford since I was 10 years old, and I would like to thank my coaches, family, and teammates for their support in helping me reach this goal. I can’t wait for life on the farm! GO CARD!!!🌲🌲 #fearthetree” – Liam Custer via his Instagram post

Our #3 recruit in his high school class, Custer is already primed to be one of the top milers in the NCAA from day 1. Custer exploded coming out of the original Coronavirus shutdown in spring/summer of 2020. He’s shown significant improvement in all SCY races except the 100 back, which he’s only swum once since returning to meets last summer.

Here is a breakdown of Custer’s pre-pandemic lifetime bests versus his current lifetime bests:

Event Pre-Pandemic Best Current Best Improvement
50 Free 22.87 21.20 -1.67
100 Free 47.23 45.60 -1.63
200 Free 1:43.69 1:36.22 -7.47
500 Free 4:29.92 4:18.49 -11.43
1000 Free 9:23.60 8:51.37 -32.23
1650 Free 15:36.07 14:37.86 -58.21
200 Back 1:47.75 1:45.91 -1.84
100 Breast 1:07.13 58.52 -8.61
200 Breast 2:13.69 2:10.42 -3.27
100 Fly 52.40 50.40 -2.00
200 Fly 1:51.09 1:47.04 -4.05
200 IM 1:50.54 1:47.41 -3.13
400 IM 4:00.22 3:48.41 -11.81

As shown above, Custer has made extraordinary gains in his distance swimming over the past 1.5 years. He’s also the 15-16 boys National Age Group Record-holder in the 1650 free, after he broke the previous record, held by Sean Grieshop, last December. Although it’s his best event, Custer has only raced the SCY 1650 free officially 5 times in his career, and only once since 2019.

Additionally, if you take a look at the top times in the class of 2022, Custer holds 3. Of course, the 100 free isn’t competed at NCAAs at the DI level, but nonetheless, Custer is the clear cut top distance swimmer of the class right now.

TOP TIMES IN THE CLASS OF 2022
50 Free Dawson Joyce 19.76
100 Free Dawson Joyce 43.59
200 Free Michael Cotter 1:34.35
500 Free Liam Custer 4:18.49
1000 Free** Liam Custer 8:51.37
1650 Free Liam Custer 14:37.86
100 Back Josh Zuchowski 46.96
200 Back Josh Zuchowski 1:41.68
100 Breast Zhier Fan 53.36
200 Breast Baylor Nelson 1:56.01
100 Fly Landon Gentry 46.41
200 Fly Landon Gentry 1:43.03
200 IM Baylor Nelson 1:44.46
400 IM Baylor Nelson 3:45.67

**The 1000 free isn’t an event at the Division I NCAA Championships, but is swum instead of the 1650 in many Division I dual meets and is part of the NCAA program in Division II.

Custer’s best time in the 1650 would have earned him a 7th-place finish at the 2021 NCAAs, and would have been Stanford’s top time. Additionally, Custer’s mile would have been good for 2nd at the 2021 Pac-12 Championships.

Stanford finished 2nd at the 2021 Pac-12 Champs, just shy of 200 points behind Cal. The addition of Custer will bring immediate freestyle scoring power to the Cardinal.

 

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So confused
2 years ago

Congratulations!

Eric Nelson
2 years ago

Congrats Custer !

Dylan
2 years ago

Stanford has done a great job landing massive distance recruits, not so great job at getting them to go faster lol

Hoosier Daddy
Reply to  Dylan
2 years ago

The story is just the opposite for the Indiana Hoosiers and the great Coach Looze!

Lil Mosey
Reply to  Dylan
2 years ago

I was in the studio making bangers with True Sweetser and I agree. The guy is absolutely MASSIVE. He came into Stanford as a massive recruit at over 200 pounds, dropped down to 160 to win the natty title, and then finished his swimming career as an absolute behemoth at 220. Liam Custer is even more MASSIVE than True, and I am confident he will go even faster than his already impressive times

Hswimmer
2 years ago

Wow. Huge drops from pre-rona to now… insane

Anonymous
Reply to  Hswimmer
2 years ago

There was a huge group of athletes that swam with the Sarasota Y this past year. Add to it the outstanding athletes already there, and it seems like it was a great environment to thrive! Congratulations!!!

PVSFree
2 years ago

Looks like Stanford’s decisions came out today

tnp101
2 years ago

Congratulations on your hard work! Welcome to the Farm!