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Irish swimmer Nathan Wiffen, 23, has announced his verbal commitment to continue his swimming and academic career at Cal, the 8-time men’s NCAA Champions. He is expected to receive only one season of eligibility barring any waivers starting fall 2025.
Wiffen said on social media:
“So Excited to take the next step in my Swimming & Academic career at the University of Cal Berkeley. Thanks all who helped me through and to the process. GO BEARS!!!🐻”
Wiffen was recently a two-time finalist at the European Aquatics Championships in June. He lowered his personal best 800 free time that he set at the 2024 Irish Open down to a 7:54.60, claiming 8th in finals. He soared to 4th in the 1500 free, beating out 5th place competitor Laci Galicz by 12.84 seconds.
He took home two gold medals from the Irish Open and Olympic Trials LCM earlier this year, taking home the gold in the 800 free touching in 7:54.69, nearly two seconds faster than his best time. He led the heat, finishing six seconds ahead of 2nd place finisher, his brother Daniel. Wiffen also took 1st in the 1500 free boasting a 15:06.48, a whopping 1:16.48 faster than 2nd place. Wiffen also took home gold in the 800 and 1500 at the 2023 Irish Open Championships. Between the two meets, Wiffen swam 9.1 seconds faster in the 800 and 27.69 seconds faster in the 1500.
Times (with Conversions):
| LCM | SCM | SCY (Conversion from LCM) | |
| 200 free | 1:53.41 | 1:47.81 | 1:38.36 |
| 400 free | 3:54.65 | 3:43.69 | 4:21.17 (500y) |
| 800 free | 7:54.60 | 7:34.78 | 9:03.75 (1000y) |
| 1500 free | 15:06.48 | 14:38.75 | 14:52.63 (1650y) |
While Wiffen is undoubtedly a distance swimmer, he showed promise of versatility as a younger swimmer. He competed at his first Irish Open in 2017, where he took 1st in the 200 back among boys 18 and under while only 14 years old. At the 2018 Irish Open he took 1st in the 200 back and 4th in the 400 IM, and in 2019 he claimed 4th in the 200 back and 9th in the 200 fly. Wiffen debuted his distance talents at the 2022 Irish Open after the event went on hiatus for two years due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Wiffen swam to 1st in the 800 free and 2nd in the 200 free, while still placing 1st in the 200 back. It wasn’t until 2023 when Wiffen began to nearly exclusively race in the distance events.
His speed in the water makes him one of Ireland and Great Britain’s fastest racers, and a fantastic addition to the Bears. He comes from a family line of great distance swimmers, as his brother Daniel Wiffen notably took home a gold in the 800 free and a bronze in the 1500 free at the Paris Olympics.
Daniel Wiffen said that he had no updates to share about his future training plans but that he is “happy for his bro.” The two are very close and create training vlogs together on their shared YouTube channel.
Cal has mostly built its best-in-class NCAA program around sprinters, though they have had three Pac-12 champions in the 1650 free: Nick Norman in 2018 and 2019 and Zach Yeadon in 2021.
Wiffen will join German sprinter Martin Wrede, Italian butterfly Matteo Palmisani, breaststroker Caiden Bowers, Dar Lavrenko, Ian Platts-Mills, and Kenneth Barnicle for the class of 2025. The men make for a well-rounded team that will continue to add to the Bears’ success. The men took 2nd at the NCAA Division I Championships earlier this year, with sprinters Jack Alexy and Destin Lasco leading the pack. The Bears lack an exclusive distance swimmer with the speeds of Wiffen, making him a valuable addition to the team.
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What has happened to my beloved program? These one-year very senior international commits do not represent the values and identity of the team. Is that Marsh and Huger? We used to take regular transfers but never did this before.
Honest thoughts? @Andrew
A certain someone bout to have a field day with this one
Those conversions are not accurate. 3:54 is more like 4:17 and 7:54 has got to be around or under 8:50.
Cal distance is Mickey and nonexistent
What a joke. Cal and marsh strike again. This is why nobody likes the Califraudnia Baby Bears
I think you need to workshop that one.
Word on the pool deck is that Dan Wiffen is going to Indiana!!!
Whatever he is doing now is clearly working so idk if a change is necessary, but that would be nonetheless exciting.
Why does he only get one year of eligibility?
Based on his age, he likely graduated high school in 2019 or 2020 – probably 2020 since it makes these numbers work out exactly. Starting 2021, his 5 year timer starts to tick down so by the time fall 2025 hits, he only has 1 year left of eligibility.
He has already been enrolled as a college student in the UK. While the UK schools are not part of the NCAA, the NCAA does not run its clocks based on “years in an NCAA school” but rather “years in college”.