Georgia Men Sign Three, Including Jr. National Champ Koski

Jack Bauerle has torn up his women’s recruiting this fall, to the point that it even dwarfed an already-impressive men’s class. With two more signings, however,the men are definitely catching up in a hurry. Their latest, biggest verbal comes from Dynamo Swim Club’s Matias Koski, who has chosen to stay close to his home-away-from-home of Atlanta.

Koski has won plenty of titles in his career. He was the 2011 Junior National Champion in the 800 free (8:08.54) en route to placing 2nd to teammate Gunnar Bentz in the overall male high-point award standings. Though he lives and trains in Georgia, Koski is a Finnish National, where over the summer he scored two National Championships in the 100 (51.49) and 400 (3:58.91) freestyles, and is a Finnish National Record holder.

The benefit of his training in the United States is that we know his yards times without deferring to conversions, and Koski is one of those rare superstar swimmers who can swim everything from the 50 to the mile. He’s probably the most diverse freestyler in the entire class.

He’s got a 20.74 in the 50 free and a 44.66 in the 100 free, which  means he’ll certainly be on four relays at NCAA’s even as a freshman (Georgia’s relays have struggled, so they need those times in a bad way). In the 200, he’s got a best of 1:37.9, in the 500 a 4:19.2 (which would have been good enough for a solid B-Final at NCAA’s) and a 15:12 in the mile. He’s reminiscent of the type of freestyle recruit that Bauerle likes to bring in on the women’s side, and is finally carrying over to the men.

It’s hard to predict what events Koski will swim at the NCAA level. He’s not a bad backstroker and butterflier, but he’s probably a freestyler at UGA. His potential seems to be just as strong in the 50 as it is in the mile, which is a rare case on the men’s side of collegiate swimming. It seems as though his best bet might be 100-200-500 individually, but he swam every freestyle event at either Junior Nationals or Senior Nationals over the summer.

During his summer abroad, he also was a finalist at Junior Europeans competing for Finland.

The Bulldogs signed another solid freestyler in Garrett (James) Powell out of the Rockville-Montgomery Swim Club. His biggest swimming accomplishment to date was as the leadoff leg of RMSC’s National Age Group Record-setting 400 medley relay for 13-14 boys.

Powell is more of a distance specialist than Koski, but he’s a very good distance swimmer at that. He’s got a 4:25.8 in the 500 free and a 15:18 in the mile. The equivalent 1500 (15:46) is the event where he holds his lone Olympic Trials cut.

A 3rd distance freestyler, Aidan Sweeney (4:33 in the 500 – and better in long course) also gave a verbal to the Bulldogs in the last 24 hours.

Add these three to a group that includes Chase Kalisz, Matt Ellis, and Zach Gunn, and the Bulldogs’ future looks very bright. Another relay piece or two, and a few years of seasoning, and this is the foundation of a top-5 team. Still, they need those relay pieces.