#6 Recruit in Class of 2015 Ella Eastin Verbally Commits to Stanford

SwimSwam’s 6th-ranked recruit in the girls’ class of 2016ย Ella Eastin has verbally committed to Stanford, she told SwimSwam via textย late Tuesday evening.

“I am so excited and am looking forward to competing in college while getting a great education. I am relived to have made my decision and I can’t wait to see where the other swimmers in my class decide to go,” Eastin said, punctuating her message with a “Go Card!”

That will give Stanford head coach Greg Meehan one more weapon to work with in the spring of 2016, where his team keepsย looking stronger-and-stronger for an NCAA title run.

Eastin can swim any of the four strokes, and swim them well, which not surprisingly makes her an incredible IM’er. Her best times:

  • 100y free – 49.77
  • 200y free – 1:48.33
  • 500y free – 4:44.47
  • 100y back – 53.72
  • 200y back – 1:55.58
  • 100y breast – 1:01.75
  • 100y fly – 53.93
  • 200y fly – 1:58.69
  • 200y IM – 1:55.15
  • 400y IM – 4:05.25

Where she’ll end up focusing her efforts as she matures and grows closer to the elite international senior travel teams for the U.S.A. could go in a lot of directions, but she shapes up to be very much like an Elizabeth Beisel type – a fantastic IM’er, with a specialty in perhaps the 200 backstroke, but the ability to swim any event with success.

Specifically, Eastin’s best times would have put her into the A-Final at NCAA’s in the 200 IM and the 400 IM, and she would have been close to scoring in the 200 back as well.

One of the benefits for Eastin going to Stanford is that the Cardinal have so much depth in the sprints that she won’t beย forced to do anything outside of her comfort zone. While as an IM’er, that can sometimes be a benefit, in a case like Eastin she’ll have the freedom to choose what she focuses on, and what stroke she wants to push each year, because Stanford won’tย need her on any relays. If she develops into a 48-low 100 freestyler, maybe she winds up on the 400 free relay, but the Cardinal’s title hopes won’t rest on it.

In that sense, she has a scenario very much like Chase Kalisz at Georgia, and one in which he’s bloomed. Because of the presence of Nic Fink, Kalisz hasn’t been forced to focus on breaststroke, and now he’s one of the top 200 flyers in the country. Another example of this comes from Stanford themselves: Maya DiRado didn’t have to be anything as a freshman or a sophomore except a great individual swimmer, and so by the time her junior and senior year came around, she had suddenly become a world-classย butterflier (not what she came to Stanford as) and she was able to do a little bit of everything for the Cardinal.

Eastin swims for the SoCal Aquatic Association and Crean Lutheran High School. In 2013, she led Crean Lutheran to their first-ever CIF Southern Section Division III title, and in the process broke Missy Franklin’s National Independent High School Record in the 200 yard IM. At Stanford, she’ll be reunited with Crean Lutheran partner Lindsey Engel, who was also on that history-making team.

Eastin is the second top-10 recruit in the class of 2015 for Greg Meehan, after #1-ranked Katie Ledecky committed very early in the process.

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Swam
9 years ago

Don’t think Baker (homeschooled) or Weitzel have the academics/scores for Stanford. That’s what I have heard. But i’d love for that to be false.

duckduckgoose
Reply to  Swam
9 years ago

Congrats to Ella-great swimmer, nice girl from a great family. There aren’t going to be any last minute surprise visits to the farm. Anyone who was interested in Stanford finished their application up over the Summer and knows their admissions status by now. Nobody’s juggling school, practice, recruiting trips, and a Stanford application at this point.

Cardfan
9 years ago

Welcome to the Farm, Ella! You will be great under Coach Greg Meehan.
I hope you can convince your pal, Kathleen Baker, to attend Stanford as well. You will win 3-4 NCAA championships in a row under your class, plus you will have a worldclass education here at Stanford. Think of those Nobel Prize winning professors who will be teaching your classes…

SWIMNERD
Reply to  Cardfan
9 years ago

+1 on Cardfan’s comments! Couldn’t have stated it better myself.

As I had predicted on another Swimswam topic the other day, Eastin committed to the best school.

Weitzeil also a likely prospect.

With all this momentum going for the Card, will Baker make an announcement soon on her 5th recruiting trip to the Farm? ๐Ÿ™‚

#gostanford

loveSwimmin
Reply to  SWIMNERD
9 years ago

Rumor has it Baker NOT considering Standford!!!!!

Swimfan101
9 years ago

Way to go Ella!

SwimFan
9 years ago

I think you are mistaken if you expect a confident young women to delay her enrollment to Stanford

bobo gigi
9 years ago

CONGRATULATIONS TO MISS EASTIN AND TO STANFORD!
MCLAUGHLIN AT CAL.
EASTIN AT STANFORD.
AFTER RUNGE, MANUEL, LEDECKY AND MANY OTHERS.
THE CALIFORNIAN SUN HAS A BIG ATTRACTION POWER.
CAL VS STANFORD FOR THE NEXT 10 YEARS?
I’M SURE GEORGIA FANS DISAGREE. ๐Ÿ™‚
NOW ABBEY WEITZEIL. CAL? STANFORD? GEORGIA? AUBURN? TEXAS? ARIZONA?
AT STANFORD SHE WOULD HAVE SIMONE MANUEL AND LIA NEAL AS TRAINING PARTNERS. WHAT A FANTASTIC GROUP OF SPRINTERS IT WOULD BE! ๐Ÿ˜ฏ

WHY ARE WE WRITING IN CAPITAL LETTERS? ๐Ÿ˜†

longseeker
9 years ago

SWIMNERD:

YOU OBVIOUSLY CARE LITTLE ABOUT MANY OF US OTHER POSTERS ON SWIM SWAM WHO FEEL YOUR COMMENTS ARE OUT OF LINE. I ASSUME YOU ARE A STANFORD FAN, AND THINK NOT THAT STANFORD SWIM FOLLOWERS CONDONE YOUR PUTDOWNS— PARTICULARLY AGAINST CAL WHEN MCLAUGHLIN CHOSE CAL FOR 2015.

I, AS A CAL FAN, SALUTE STANFORD ON ANOTHER GREAT GET ALONG WITH THE FABULOUS LEDECKY! THE CARDINAL WOMEN TEAM SHOULD BE IN THE TOP 3 FOR 2015 NCAAS TITLE AND PROHIBITED FAVORITE FOR 2016—UNLESS RECRUITMENT CHANGES WITH SOME OF THE OTHER TOP TIER SWIMMERS.

BUT THE BOTTOM LINE IS THAT MANY OF THESE EXCEPTIONAL STUDENT/ATHLETES KNOW EACH OTHER AND REMAIN FRIENDS THOUGH OUT THEIR COLLEGIATE CAREERS. TO ME, THAT’S ALL THAT… Read more ยป

law dawg
Reply to  longseeker
9 years ago

WHY ARE YOU YELLING?

calswimfan
Reply to  law dawg
9 years ago

AHHHHHHH! CONGRATS ELLA! I WILL STILL FOLLOW YOUR COLLEGE CAREER AS A SWIM FAN. GOOD LUCK!

bobo gigi
Reply to  longseeker
9 years ago

IF I HAVE WELL UNDERSTOOD, KATIE LEDECKY WILL NOT GO TO STANFORD BEFORE 2016 AND THE OLYMPIC GAMES.
IT SEEMS SO OBVIOUS. LOGICAL AND SMART. AND KATIE IS VERY SMART. IT WOULD BE DANGEROUS TO CHANGE HER COACH AND HER TRAINING ONE YEAR BEFORE THE BIGGEST MEET OF CAREER. IT WORKS SO WELL WITH BRUCE GEMMELL AT NCAP RIGHT NOW.

9 years ago

I’m so glad that Ella has committed to Stanford! The entire studio congratulates our beautiful Ella and wish you continued “Blow ’em outta the water” success!!!!

Coach vickie
9 years ago

Congrats to Ella! Welcome to the Cardinal family!!

About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, โ€ฆ

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