Former University of Florida All-American Kacper Stokowski will join NC State’s program in the fall of 2020, he told SwimSwam. As previously reported, he is sitting out the 2019-2020 season to train for the upcoming Olympic Games at home in Poland.
Stokowski was the third NCAA qualifier to announce a transfer out of the University of Florida this offseason, doing so after just one season in Gainesville. He joined Turkey’s Erge Gezmis and American Maxine Rooney in transferring. Gezmis is also headed to NC State, though he’ll join the Wolfpack this year, and Rooney is doing his senior season at the University of Texas.
Stokowski will join a very strong NC State class of 2023 that features current freshmen Ross Dant, Noah Bowers, Noah Henderson, Markus Wennborg, Hunter Tapp, Kimani Gregory, Owen Hanna, Bayne Bennett, Kevin Childs, Zachary Cram, Thomas Hamlet, and Garrett Waite.
Individually, Stokowski finished ninth in the 100 back (44.90) and 35th in the 200 back (1:44.26) at NCAAs last year. He scratched the 100 fly, where a season-best time would have put him right on the verge of scoring points.
He also swam on three Gator relays at NCAAs: in prelims of the 200 free relay, as the backstroke leg of their eighth-place 400 medley relay, and as the backstroke leg of their 10th-place 200 medley relay. Only one member of the Florida All-America 400 medley relay, their second-best relay at NCAAs, will return next season: rising senior breaststroker Marco Guarante (52.22 split in the NCAA final).
Stokowski also scored 76 points individually at the SEC Championships, including a runner-up finish in the 100 back – about half-a-second behind Alabama’s Zane Waddell. Between the three All-American transfers alone (Rooney – 87 Gezmis – 43), the Gators have lost 206 points this offseason. The seven-time defending conference champion Gators did have some cushion, though: they return 794.5 points next season, which is roughly 274.5 more points than the next-closest team, Missouri, returns.
Stokowski’s Yards Bests:
- 50 free – 20.14
- 100 free – 44.30
- 200 free – 1:38.55
- 100 back – 44.90
- 200 back – 1:41.31
- 100 fly – 45.72
LCM Bests:
- 50 free – 23.20
- 100 free – 50.03
- 200 free – 1:48.51
- 100 back – 53.82
- 100 fly – 54.07
Stokowski represented Poland at the 2019 Summer Universiade (World University Games), where his best finish was 12th in the semi-finals of the 100 back (55.08), which was over a second short of his lifetime best set in May of 2018 while he was still training in Poland.
Florida’s men finished sixth at the 2019 NCAA Championship meet.
I like Florida but I feel like a guy like Kacper is going to thrive at NC State. Florida either turns you super human or it grinds you into the dirt. Swimmers like Dressel, Lochte, Dwyer, they thrive. Swimmers like Natalie Hinds, Maxime Rooney, and maybe Kacper sorta take off when they go to a different program.
Predictions after the end of a season with NC State:
50 fr: splits 18 on a relay
100 fr: 42 relay/ 48hi 49 low LCM
50 back: 20.8
100 back: 44.0
Doubt he swims on their sprint free relays…. they have other better proven sprinters than someone whose 100 free is not even a second faster than their 100 back (even if their back time is ridiculously fast).
Why are so many swimmers leaving UF?
Troy, who recruited them all, isn’t head coach.
For the same reason so many other swimmers and divers are leaving other institutions – The NCAA has opened the trapdoor and the cockroaches are scurrying.
Definitely a good backstroke add after they lose Stewart.
Guntoro is heating up his international recruiting. Great pick up.
Yeah. Berkoff, Mack, Flickinger, Foley, McCausland and the rest of the American class suck, right?
Yeet
Great choice