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Nathan Szobota, the #4 recruit in the boys’ high school class of 2025, has announced that he has flipped his commitment from Notre Dame to the University of Virginia.
On his Instagram post announcing the change, Szobota wrote:
I’m very excited to announce my verbal commitment to continue my academic and athletic career at the University of Virginia! I want to thank my family, friends, coaches, and teachers for supporting me. I also want to thank the UVA coaching staff for this opportunity. GO HOOS!!!! ⚔️
Szobota joins a high-powered recruiting class for the Cavaliers, that includes Olympian Thomas Heilman and Maximus Williamson. With Szobota’s verbal commitment, Virginia now has commitments from the #1 Williamson, #2 Heilman, #4 Szobota, #9 Thomas Mercer, #13 Blake Amlicke, and three BOTR recruits (Grant Murphy, Noah Powers, and Josh Howat) from SwimSwam’s top 20 recruits in the boys’ class of 2025 rankings of the class as incoming seniors.
So, Szobota adds firepower in the distance events to an already stacked recruiting class that stands to power the Virginia men up the NCAA standings and has an argument for the best recruiting class in NCAA swimming history.
Best Times:
- 1650 free: 14:53.83
- 1000 free: 8:50.44
- 500 free: 4:18.38
- 200 free: 1:36.93
- 200 back: 1:43.85
- 100 back: 47.93
- 400 IM: 3:49.93
Though Szobota did not improve in SCY in his primary distance events during his junior year season, he still owns an NCAA-qualification-worthy mile that ranks 10th in the U.S. 15-16 age group, the second-fastest 1000 freestyle in the class, and the third-fastest 500 freestyle time in the class. He made improvements in the 200 freestyle and 200 backstroke over the last year though, which makes him an even more valuable recruit at both the conference and national level.
That pattern of improving his secondary events has remained true in long-course as well. This summer, he competed at the U.S. Olympic Trials, swimming season-bests in the 400/800/1500 freestyle and 400 IM. He swam season-bests in all those events, with his best finish coming in the 800 freestyle (37th). But during time trials, he set a personal best 2:01.75 in the 200-meter backstroke.
With his flipped commitment Szobota, who swims for NOVA Aquatics of Virginia, will remain in-state for his collegiate career. He was a huge get for Notre Dame when he originially committed to the program. He was only the fifth top-20 ranked recruit the Irish have snagged since SwimSwam has been doing recruiting rankings, and their first top-10 swimmer. However, after a program-best finish at the 2024 Men’s NCAA Championships, the men’s program at Notre Dame has been suspended for a minimum of one academic year after an investigation into potential gambling. A source has told SwimSwam the program is also under investigation by Notre Dame’s Office of Institutional Equity (OIE).
The Virginia men are aiming to have a bounce-back 2024-25 season before this recruiting class arrives on campus next fall. The Cavalier men finished fifth at the 2024 ACC Championships, and 17th at the 2024 NCAA Championships.
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Gambling from Notre Dame to UVA distance coaches
Hard to argue that the most spectacular duo in the same class wasn’t Pablo Morales & Jeff Kostoff, both Olympians as HS seniors in 1984, at Stanford. That class had some other great recruits as well; Dave Louden, John Hodge, Matt Nance, etc.
But all taken together – top to bottom – yes, this UVa 2025 group is the best HS recruiting class in history. Not a particularly close call.
The future is now for the UVA men. 5 in the top 15 and 3 of the top 4 recruits in the class; Desorbo needs to translate all that talent into some team success this year if they want to take the next step on the ladder to the ACC team podium. Top dogs NCSU and now Cal (bears) aren’t going anywhere soon
if by “now” you mean another year or two
Certainly sooner rather than later.
This is class of 2025. These guys won’t swim their first NCAAs until March 2026. But UVA men also have an under-the-radar strong class for the current freshmen too, and she should set a good foundation for what’s coming next season.
You are so off target with that comment. You do understand that all those kids are still in HS?
Real sports (aka not swimming) frequently have conversations that start with statements like the one I made in my original comment. Tune into any college sports radio talk show and I almost guarantee that a myriad of shows are saying things similar if not identical to my original comment. If swimming wants to stay relevant more than once every 4 years, it’s time that we have some grown up conversations about our sport. NCAA sports are now a business, and the teams that want to be at the top of the NCAA (in any sport!) are now viewing recruits in a different way than they did 5-10+ years ago.
Hey, I like your passion. But people are reacting to your comment bc you said the program needs to win THIS YEAR. But this amazing recruiting class literally will not be at UVA this year bc they’re still in HS. Next season and beyond – your comment makes sense.
Thank you for a nuanced critique.
How do they get such great recruits if they were 17th at NCAA?
They have one of the best and most exciting coaches in the country who has a track record of winning titles, that’s why. The women’s team was usually 10th-20th+ most years and they’re about to win title #5. Teams have to start somewhere when it comes to winning titles after winning none before. Do you have some sort of warped thinking where you think that only teams perennially in the top 5 should win a title? Or are you just a salty anti-UVA fan?
I mean, what are the odds of this happening?
This guy wins the internet.
🎲
I think the whole college swim world will be closely following this class. Will it live up to the usual UVA underperformance, or can they actually start a decent Men’s team in Charlottesville
Let’s gooooo!!!! Love the in state talent committing to Virginia!⚔️
I cannot imagine why