The University of Southern California men’s swimming and diving team has received its second verbal commitment in as many days. Andy Lee of Great Neck South High School and Laguardia Aquatic Club in Long Island, New York added his verbal to the Trojans’ class of 2023, joining Trent Martinez who committed yesterday, and Ivan Puskovitch who made his intention known a month ago.
“I am so excited to announce my verbal commitment to continue my academic and athletic career at the University of Southern California! I want to thank my family, friends, and coaches for helping me get this far. Fight On! ✌🏼✌🏼”
Lee is a versatile swimmer who has Winter Juniors cuts or better in free, back, breast, fly and IM. In high school season he swam the sprint double at the 2018 New York Public School Championships, winning the 100 free (45.08) and finishing second in the 50 free (20.87). His times landed him in the runner-up spot for both events in the NYSPHSAA Federation Championship results. Lee followed up his high school performances with PBs in the 100 back and 200 IM at Ithaca Sectionals; he was an A-finalist in the 50/100/200 free, 100 back, 100 fly, and 200 IM. He competed in the 100 free, 100 breast, and 200 IM at Winter Junior Nationals East last December.
Top SCY times:
- 50 free – 20.38
- 100 free – 45.08
- 100 breast – 56.37
- 100 fly – 49.84
- 100 back – 50.31
- 200 back – 1:49.68
- 200 IM – 1:51.71
If you have a commitment to report, please send an email with a photo (landscape, or horizontal, looks best) and a quote to [email protected].
Congratulations!
Any recruiting news is welcome and everyone realizes these are “early results”. But USC Trojan fans have the question: With senior All Americans (Dylan and Condorelli) graduating, where’s the talent to replace them? Not so far from the Class of 2019. Swim Swam’s Top 20 US High school rankings show ZERO of those USA elite boys swimmers signing with USC. Granted, USC seems to land a few elite international level swimmers (Jorgensen and Sancov) and there are some of those available in the class of 2019. But that makes following USC recruiting a dicey proposition of hoping Salo can work some magic with international elite swimmers after whiffing with American high school elites.
Recruiting isn’t that complicated. It’s a matter… Read more »
Perhaps USC is pricing itself out of the market for any top swimmer (or student for that matter) where money is not unlimited?
It’s true that USC has the highest cost of attendance for the major California schools according to web site College Tuition Compare. “All in” costs for tuition, books and housing end up at $72k for USC compared to $69k for Stanford and $37k for California. Stanford has an advantage in overall massive endowment that allows for student athletes whose families have income below a certain level (something like $100k or $125k) get free tuition. That allows Stanford to stock its athletic teams in non-revenue sports with a significant number of quality athletes who don’t “count” on maximum scholarship levels. This explains why Stanford has won the Director’s Cup (overall athletic program excellence) for the umpteenth year in a row. USC… Read more »
That’s why they got crushed at conference this year. The mid tier swimmer also has good options in UCSD and UCSB and they can live near the beach and not an inner city locale.
I know so many kids who are hesitant to announce their verbals on swimswam because of comments like this implying they are not good enough for a certain school. Those aren’t USC times! those aren’t Michigan times! Recruiting is way more nuanced than you put it above.
The key on recruiting is athletic scholarships. From the athlete’s point of view it’s: can I get an athletic scholarship to the school I want to attend? From the coaches point of view: I have 9.9 scholies available for D1 Men and 14 for Women. Is this athlete good enough to merit one of those scholies – either full for an elite or possibly a partial or most likely have the athlete apply for some other kind of academic or needs-based scholarship and come on the team as an “invited walk-on”.
For major D1 (Power 5 conferences) the focus has to be on elite swimmers who can be points contributors at D1 championships or at least at the conference… Read more »
Worth pointing out that Dylan Carter and Condorelli are both technically international swimmers (so are Tribuntsov, Glinta, Furtek, Morozov, Quintero, and most of USC’s recent top swimmers). Swimswam only ranks Americans, so misses most of USC’s actual top recruits.
Got to expect USC to pluck out a couple stud foreigners every year.