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Carmel, Indiana’s Andrew Shackell, who announced his verbal pledge to Cal two days after that of his twin sister, Alex Shackell, has now flipped his commitment to Texas. His older brother, Aaron Shackell, announced his transfer to Texas in early May, a month after the appointment of new head coach Bob Bowman.
“I’m beyond excited to announce my verbal commitment to swim and study at the University of Texas. I want to take this opportunity to thank Coach Plumb and Coach Pfaff as well as Coach Bowman. HOOK ‘EM 🤘”
Like his siblings, both of whom made the U.S. Olympic team for Paris, Shackell swims for Carmel High School and Carmel Swim Club. As a junior at the Indiana High School State Swimming and Diving Championships, he placed 3rd in the 50 free (20.43) and 3rd in the 100 fly (48.26), narrowly missing his lifetime bests in the respective events. He achieved those times (20.27/47.68) at Winter Juniors East last December, where he finished 18th in the 50 free and 11th in the 100 fly. He also picked up new PBs in the 100 free (45.69), 200 free (1:39.32), and 200 fly (1:50.34). His best times in those events (45.49/1:38.82 in the freestyles and 1:49.99 in the fly) come from CSC’s Winter Invitational in January of this year.
All told, in the 9 months since he first committed to swimming in college, he has dropped 1.8 seconds in the 100 fly, 0.9 in the 200 fly, 1 in the 200 free, 1.1 in the 100 free, and 1 in the 50 free.
Best SCY times:
- 100 fly – 47.68
- 200 fly – 1:49.99
- 200 free – 1:38.82
- 100 free – 45.49
- 50 free – 20.27
Shackell will join the Longhorns’ class of 2029 with Clem Camacho, Evan Conti, John Simmons, Michael Gorey, and Rafael Fente-Damers. Texas enters the SEC on July 1, 2024, after having dominated the Big 12 conference for 45 years (including championship titles for the last 28 years straight). It took 47.06/1:45.84 to get second swims in the 100/200 fly at SECs this past season, and 19.68/42.92/1:35.40 to score in the freestyle events.
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So many commits to Texas. Does anyone get a decent scholarship? It’s as if you pay UT, to swim.
Having an all time great as a coach at a good school with a great swimming history does help spread those scholarships around a bit more.
You pay UT to get a college education. If you swim, you probably get a partial scholarship that pays for tuition, or books. But a number of people have walked on over the years. Ed carried a big team and teams are limited to what, 9-10 scholarships. You don’t find many swimmers getting a full ride anywhere. That being said, while a college education isn’t cheap, tuition at UT is fairly reasonable for in state students, especially for the education you get.
You typically don’t get much of a scholarship at UT. Plus since they are not from Texas they start off with out-of-state tuition. That translates to a higher cost.
Great decision!!
lol cal is a joke of a program that doesn’t swim remotely enough yards to develop anything over a 200 or 200s in meters
Still not Durden’s least favorite Andrew though.
Since the day Bowman went to UT/Austin, I’ve cut back further and further on the timeline for Texas Men’s Swimming to return to Top Three rankings for NCAA championships. From 5 years, down to 3 years, and now, well maybe 1 more year — but hey, at this rate, with new recruits still coming for the fall, maybe Texas’s time is NOW.
For just top 3, I can see them get it next year for sure. For top 2, though, might be 2-3 more
This recruit isn’t going to do much to Help Texas climb the rankings, at least for 2-3 years! But I agree they will be moving up rankings….thanks to intl recruits.
Do you know something the rest of us don’t?
Calling it now
1. Texas
2. Indiana
3. Florida
4. Cal
5. NC state
6. ASU
7. Tennessee
8. Notre Dame
9. Stanford
10. Virginia Tech
19. Virginia (savage 7)
In NBA Terms, Lebron makes the Lakers draft Bronny
Except Andrew is a legit recruit, Bronny was a charity case
Not so sure about that
How many high school kids have gone sub 1:50 in the 2 free this year? Andrew is going to be a big time swimmer
300+
Bronny would not get a sniff at the draft if it weren’t for his dad. He is simply not NBA caliber. The minute his dad is out of the league he will be out of the league
Only about 20% of 2nd round picks work out.
There are worse reasons to use a 2nd round pick on a guy. Especially a 55th pick. He’s a willing defender – worst case you get a guy who’s going to challenge some guys in practice.
We need another word; high school kids don’t make “commitments” to college programs anymore (probably not their fault, but rather a result of the current rules/atmosphere). Should we call these “feels” instead of “commitments”? “Person Person feels like going to Cal today. Person now feels like going to Texas instead of Cal. Tomorrow Person feels like going to ASU”.
Baby Gronk’s dad makes me want to agree with you on this
It’s been a trend across divisions, verbal commitments mean nothing until the papers are signed, which really sucks. But it is teenagers making these decisions, so we can’t expect them to fully think through their actions lol
I think we already have the separate term, we just use the word “verbal.”
Lol exactly. It’s surprising the number of people who are surprised when these change.
While decommiting has always happened, NIL incentives actually help reduce decommitting. They can sign NIL contracts before starting as a freshman, and those require releases if the kid wants to decommit
Perhaps, but in this case I think it has A LOT to do with whatever happened to his brother at Cal. Big big L for Cal on missing out on these talents. Durden has been punching air for the last two weeks
I’m a Cal fan, but I wish the Shackell’s the best at UT. Still, I’ll be excited when Cal wins the majority of the next 6 NCAA titles while the Shackells are at Texas 🐻 I will be jealous of their proximity to Franklin BBQ though.
Sorry Justin, I can’t imagine that happening.
I agree with much of what you say, but Franklin BBQ sucks – just marketing and the sunk-cost fallacy at play with that place.
Blasphemy 😱
You are a Sage my friend
Maybe Cal should start focusing on developing their mid d