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Martin Wrede, a sprinter from Hannover, Germany, has announced his verbal commitment to the University of California, Berkeley, for the 2025-26 school year and beyond. He wrote on social media:
“I am very excited to announce my verbal commitment to further my swimming and academic career at the University of California, Berkeley. I want to thank everyone who supported me a long the way and especially my family and Coaches! I can’t wait to be part of such a great team #GoBears 🐻🐻!!”
Wrede swims for the club team W98 Hannover and represents Germany internationally. He specializes in sprint freestyle and holds the German Age Record in the 100m free. He cleared the mark with 49.45 in April with his 6th-place finish at the 2024 German Olympic Trials. Two months later, at the European Championships in Belgrade, he dropped .70 to lower his PB to 48.75 leading off the men’s 4×100 free relay. He earned a bronze medal at that meet in the mixed 4×100 free relay.
Wrede’s 100 free is the 2nd-fastest LCM time in the class of 2025. Only Maximus Williamson has been faster, and that was in 2023 at the World Junior Championships. Wrede ranks among the top 50 freestylers in the cohort, too.
Best LCM times (converted):
- 50 free – 22.71 (19.73)
- 100 free – 48.75 (42.47)
- 200 free – 1:52.33 (1:38.31)
Cal began competing in the ACC this season, where in 2024 it took 19.20/19.41/19.68 in the 50 free and 42.21/42.65/43.31 in the 100 free to make the A/B/C finals at the conference championship meet. Golden Bears Jack Alexy and Bjorn Seeliger were A finalists in both the 50 free and the 100 free at 2024 NCAA Championships, where Cal placed 2nd behind Arizona State in the team standings. The Cal freestyle relays all medaled: the 4×200 won 1st place, the 4×50 was 2nd, and the 4×100 came in 3rd. So far this year, Nans Mazellier, Evan Petty, Colby Hatton, and Yamato Okadome have been 20.5 or faster in the 50 free, and Mazellier and Matt Jenson have already been 43-low in the 100 free.
Wrede will join Caiden Bowers, Dar Lavrenko, Ian Platts-Mills, Julien Rousseau, Kenneth Barnicle, Matteo Palmisani, Norvin Clontz, Ryan Erisman, and Max Goettsch in Berkeley next fall.
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].
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Cal just added Casper Puggard (Danish butterflier) to this class as well. Loading up on internationals – eat your heart out Andrew.
Another “freshman” who will be 21 for his first ACC or NCAA Champs. Might be appropriate to asterisk these swimmers when comparing them to the HS class of 2025 who will all 18-19.
Could just asterisk any cal recruit at that point then lol
Welcome Martin! I know you’ll thrive as a Cal Bear 🐻
The Baby Bears superteam is assembling how much help does the fraud Durden need when his whole team graduates this year
I swear Andrew not so secretly has a massive crush on Durden.
There’s a 0% chance all 11 of those commits are actually on the roster next fall, let alone even signing scholarships in a few weeks. You can’t bring in 11 with a 30 person roster, particularly now that Cal actually has scoring divers.
Genuine question: what’s the 30 person roster limit you’re referring to? They have over 40 on this year’s roster.
Edit: I’m assuming you’re referring to the House settlement. I read that limit as a scholarship limit (which is an increase from today) not a roster limit. But either I misread that or Cal and others have found a loophole, presumably by not counting athletes that aren’t on scholarship.
Cal has a rather large endowment for Olympic sports, especially swimming. So as long as neither the conference nor ncaa installs roster limits, they will be able to offer scholarships in addition to actual 9.9 swimming scholarships.
All conferences that opted into the House settlement are subject to a max cap of 30 athletes. https://swimswam.com/house-settlement-terms-reveal-new-division-i-roster-limit-of-30-swimmers-and-divers-per-team/
Congratulations Martin!
Cal’s reloading sprinters.
This 25/26 class is nuts. Go Bears!
Fente-Damers, the Texas commit has been faster than both Williamson and Wrede in the 100 LCM Free