2025 Men’s NCAAs: How Did Our Top 20 Recruits Perform As Freshmen?

We’ve already done a deep dive into our recruiting archives, looking at how the top 20 recruits from the high school class of 2021 did after four NCAA seasons. Now it’s time to look back at a more recent recruit ranking: the current year’s freshmen:

Relevant links:

• Way-Too-Early Sophomore Ranks, Class of 2024 Boys
• Junior Ranks, Class of 2024 Boys
• Senior Re-Ranks, Class of 2024 Boys

Naturally, this analysis has a far smaller sample size than the lookback of how the class of 2021 fared over their entire career, so it’s much more difficult to read too much into these numbers. Still, it’s useful to look at which first-year NCAA swimmers had the best performances relative to their recruiting ranks.

As always, our notes on this data:

• The data included is only individual scoring at NCAAs. That’s not an exact measure of an athlete’s contribution to a program: many of these swimmers (and others not listed) were relay scorers at NCAAs, scored significant points at conference meets and provided great leadership and culture-building for their programs. This data isn’t a perfect analysis of the best recruits – it’s merely a quick look at the data we can compile.
• A college swimming career includes four years of eligibility, and sometimes more. Revisiting scoring after one year is an incomplete analysis of a swimmer’s career – this is not the final word on any of these prospects, and we will revisit this data over the next three seasons to get a more complete evaluation.

The ranks listed below are from our re-rank last summer – they are not current ranks of NCAA athletes. We also do not rank international athletes as recruits, as it’s hard to predict if and when they’ll come to the U.S., and which class with which to include them.

TOP 20 RANKED RECRUITS

HM=Honorable mention

We’ve traditionally female swimmers have much more success in their freshman seasons of college relative to their male counterparts, and that held true again this past season. We only saw four of our ranked male recruits score individually in their first year of NCAA competition, compared to 12 of the female top 20 (and two Honorable Mentions compared to one male).

The Hits:

• Leading the way in freshmen scoring was Texas’ Cooper Lucas, who potted 13 points after setting back-to-back best times on Friday in the 400 IM, clocking 3:38.21 in the prelims to advance to the ‘A’ final where he placed 6th (3:38.18). He added another point (for 14 total) in the 200 fly, hitting a PB of 1:40.86 in the heats before finishing 16th. Lucas came into the season as the fastest recruit in the class in the 400 IM (3:41.15).
• Louisville’s Jake Eccleston was the surprise second-highest point scorer among ranked recruits, landing an ‘A’ final spot in the 200 breast after a blistering prelim swim PB of 1:50.19. He finished 7th in the final in 1:50.27, and nearly added to his point total one day earlier, placing 17th in the 100 breast (51.48).
• Also hitting double-digit points in his freshman year was Johnny Crush, who brought the Army school record in the 100 back down by nearly three seconds over the course of the season, culminating with his 44.52 in the prelims at NCAAs to make the ‘A’ final where he finished 8th. Prior to Crush’s Army debut, the program record stood at 47.22.
• Minnesota’s Jacob Johnson came into the season as the fastest swimmer in the class in the 200 fly (1:42.29), and consistently improved throughout the campaign, cracking 1:40 for the first time in the NCAA consolation final (1:39.96) to place 10th and score seven points.
• Honorable Mention recruit Daniel Li entered his freshman year at Stanford with a PB of 1:55.02 in the 200 breast, and produced a pair of 1:51.8s at NCAAs to place 15th and score a pair of points, making him one of just five ranked domestic recruits to hit the board.
• Georgia’s Drew Hitchcock didn’t score any points as a freshman, but that doesn’t tell the full story of his debut NCAAs. Hitchock qualified for the ‘B’ final of the 400 IM after setting a best time of 3:39.55 in the prelims, but was disqualified in the evening session.
• Several other top-ranked recruits had impressive seasons despite not scoring individual points at the NCAA Championships. #1 Kaii Winkler set best times in the 100 and 200 free to place 5th in both at the ACC Championships, #6 Spencer Nicholas ripped a 44.41 100 fly at the Tennessee Invite which was faster than the ‘A’ final cut-off at NCAAs, his Virginia teammate #8 David King led off the 800 free relay at NCAAs in 1:31.83 (and didn’t swim the 200 free individually), and #11 Kyle Peck was on fire for Texas at the Eddie Reese Showdown in January, clocking times of 45.02/1:39.36/44.74 in the 100/200 back and 100 fly, all of which would’ve scored at NCAAs.

The Misses:

With three more seasons of eligibility, there are no real misses, but we’re simply looking at swimmers who may have not performed as expected as freshmen.

• Our #3 and #4 ranked recruits, Lucca Battaglini and Adriano Arioti, were the only two recruits in the top 15 (who competed through the full season) to not earn an NCAA invite.
• Cal’s Battaglini came in as the fastest swimmer in the class in the 50 free (19.04), and had his quickest swim come at ACCs in 19.15, 13 one-hundredths shy of the NCAA cutline (19.02).
• Arioti, who came in as an incredibly versatile recruit with elite times across fly, back, free and IM, didn’t quite hit his PBs with Harvard, posting his best finish at the Ivy League Championships (3rd) in the 200 back (1:41.37 in prelims, just over a second shy of the 1:40.13 cutline).
• The other top-10 recruit we’ve yet to mention is Luke Whitlock, who committed to Florida and shortly after our last edition of the recruit rankings, made the U.S. Olympic team in the 800 free. Whitlock last raced for the Gators at the UGA Fall Invite in November, and announced he was heading home for the second semester in December. His 1650 free time of 14:49.90 in the UGA Fall Invite was just over a second shy of the NCAA cutline. He’s now entered the transfer portal.
• Among the recruits ranked 16-20 and the rest of the Honorable Mentions outside of Daniel Li, four swimmers attended NCAAs as relay-only swimmers, while five missed out on earning an invite.

UNRANKED RECRUITS

And of course, we’ll include which unranked recruits earned NCAA invites and scored points this season – both domestic up-and-comers and international pickups.

DOMESTIC:

• Florida State’s Logan Robinson came into his freshman year with a best time of 1:44.8 in the 200 fly, and after setting a PB of 1:40.34 to place 5th at ACCs, went 1:40.23 in the NCAA ‘B’ final to finish 11th and score six points. He also set bests in the 100 fly (45.89) and 200 IM (1:43.95) at NCAAs.
• OSU’s Matthew Klinge had a breakout performance at the Big Ten Championships, winning the 50 free (18.78) while adding best times in the 100 free (42.56) and 100 fly (45.39). At NCAAs, he produced two more sub-19 swims in the 50 free to finish 14th overall in 18.96. He came into his freshman season with a best time of 19.45.
• UNC’s PJ Foy was a BOTR recruit coming out of high school as a sprint freestyler who was also strong in breaststroke, but ended up being a surprise NCAA scorer in the 100 fly. Entering the season with a PB of 46.77, Foy clocked 44.91 at the Tennessee Last Chance Invite at the end of February to qualify, and followed up by going 44.85 in the NCAA prelims, landing him a spot in the ‘B’ final where he placed 16th (45.04).

INTERNATIONAL:

• Frenchman Mewen Tomac joined the Cal Bears with an impressive international resume, including winning an individual World Championship medal and an individual European title, so it’s no surprise to see him lead the international first-year swimmers in points. Tomac joined the sub-44/sub-1:37 clubs in the 100 and 200 back at NCAAs, placing 4th with respective times of 43.94 and 1:36.90. He also scored in the 200 IM, taking 13th in 1:41.19.
• Tomac’s teammate, Japanese breaststroker Yamato Okadome, had an impressive debut season in Berkeley, including finishing as the ACC runner-up in the 200 breast in a personal best time of 1:50.19. At NCAAs, he was 7th in the 100 breast (50.69 / 50.62 prelims) and 6th in the 200 breast (1:50.23) to score 25 points. He also swam on both of Cal’s medley relays.
• One of the revelations of the NCAA season was Florida freshman Alex Painter, an Englishman who emerged as an elite sprint freestyler for the Gators and a key relay contributor. Painter was 9th in the 50 free (18.60) and 12th in the 200 free (1:31.90) individually, and narrowly missed scoring in the 100 free (41.80 for 18th). He also swam on four of Florida’s relays, including anchoring the victorious 400 medley relay (40.92 split). He also anchored the record-setting 400 medley relay at SECs in 40.68.
• Another Brit, Yale’s Nick Finch, stormed to the Ivy League title in the 100 fly in a lifetime best of 44.57, and matched that time in the NCAA consolation final to finish 11th. Finch also won the 50 free (19.07) at the Ivy League Championships and was 3rd in the 100 free (42.63).
• French native Michel Arkhangelskiy was a standout for the Florida State Seminoles all season, including winning the 100 back title at ACCs (44.49) and placing 2nd in the 100 fly (44.36) and 9th in the 200 back (1:38.50) at the conference meet. He was just a touch off his ACC form at NCAAs, but still scored with a 14th-place showing in the 100 fly (44.77) and a 16th-place outing in the 100 back (45.05).

DIVING:

• Eight different freshman divers scored at NCAAs, with Texas’ Jacob Welsh leading the way. Welsh was 4th on 3-meter and 12th on platform, contributing 20 points to the Longhorns’ overall team victory.
• Texas A&M first-year Jaxon Bowshire, an Aussie Olympian, was the clear runner-up in the platform event at NCAAs, posting a score of 450.80 to earn 17 points for the Aggies (Indiana’s Carson Tyler won with a score of 480.45).
• Other freshmen in the platform ‘A’ final were Purdue’s Kaden Springfield and Stanford’s Misha Andriyuk, who placed 3rd and 8th, respectively.
• Luke Sitz was the lone individual scorer for SMU at the meet, placing 7th on 1-meter for 12 points while finishing one spot shy of earning a consolation appearance on 3-meter (17th).

ARCHIVES: REVISITING RECRUIT RANKINGS