Kyle Gornay from the Redlands Swim Team in California has verbally committed to swim for Dave Durden’s Cal Bears beginning in the fall of 2014.
Aside from Caeleb Dressel, Gornay was the biggest name left on the board in the class, with fellow Californians Corey Okubo and Justin Lynch being the only other super-elite Americans left on the board.
Gornay can do a little bit of everything. His best times in yards are:
- 50 free – 20.66
- 100 free – 43.89
- 200 free – 1:34.99
- 100 back – 47.04
- 200 back – 1:44.57
- 100 fly – 46.83
- 200 fly – 1:49.45
- 200 IM – 1:47.49
Gornay has very much the feel of a Tom Shields type of swimmer. Great backstroker, better butterflier, and underrated, but still highly effective, as a freestyle relay swimmer. He’s another swimmer in the class that has every opportunity to step onto Cal’s 800 free relay, as a freshman (along with Kyle Coan), at least, as well as score individually at NCAA’s. The 100 fly and 100 back races are about to get a lot stiffer at NCAA’s in the next few years, but Gornay based on last years times would have been within half-a-second in finaling at NCAA’s in both races.
There’s been some questions about Cal’s recruiting class, and though it seems they’ll miss out on the big two from Bolles, it’s far from a disappointment. As the names really start to pile up, though, it’s clear how good this class really is.
- Kyle Coan
- Connor Green
- Ryan Kao
- Matt Whittle
- Connor Hoppe
- Nick Silverthorn
- Zach Stevens
- Kyle Gornay
What happened to Gornay? Not on the Cal roster for 2015-2016 season. Red shirt?
PAC12BACKER – Cal coaches say he’s not coming back.
Gornay is a great pick-up for Cal. Looks like Cal is positiioned to be within striking distance of the NCAA title for years to come! I am curious how Gornay will swim this season. After posting a decent 20.96 in the 50 free at the Riverside Senior Invite last weekend, he ballooned up to a 1:43.16 in the 200 free for a 3rd place.
That’s a far cry from his 1:34.99 standard from last year. I realize it is early season, but IMO a teenage level elite swimmer should never get themselves that far off a best time. And if he sand-bagged it or something like that, then shouldn’t even have swum it in the first place. I’ll be… Read more »
Great athlete, great class. Go Bears
By the looks of CALs recruit class they are by far the number 1 class so far.
I wouldn’t say “by far.” I think Cal and Texas are pretty on par although I do think Cal goes deeper. Michigan and Stanfurd are also not far behind.
Texas cannot have the top class with only 3 commits (even though they are solid commits). Michigan is probably the best class right now (with Cal on par). Michigan has 10 commits (9 of which have national standards and are ranked in the top 10 in their respective age groups in at least one event). Three of those swimmers are international (2 from Canada and one from Scotland).
The difference is that Cal is losing less NCAA qualifiers / point scorers than Michigan (4 vs. 7); and only Tarczynski is a big NCAA scorer. Michigan loses Jaeger, Whitaker, Ryan and Wynalda.
If guys like Lynch and Okubo end up staying in state in Cali, then Cal will solely take the… Read more »
FYI:
CAL has 8 recruits in the top 100 & 6 of those are in the top 50(according to Collegeswimming) compared to MI 7 & 5.
CAL has 8 recruits all listed with US Open cuts and 7 of them are listed in their respective age group top 10. No international swimmers (not sure that makes for a better recruit class) and 7 of the 8 are all California swimmers plus 1 from MA. I would have to say CAL has more depth with those 8 guys then MI with their 10.
I agree Texas needs more then 3 commits to make them competitive with these 2 schools.
What’s up with USC only getting 2 verbals so far???? Any thoughts.
Hey M_FAN or any others,
I’m still not sure about how the scholarship $$ works with recruiting in swimming. I’ve heard that teams get 9.9 scholly $? But how much is that really? Some schools are more expensive than others and some schools have different in-state and out-of-state tuitions.
Michigan, for example, has a lot of out-of-state and international swimmers in the recruiting class and on the roster. How are they able to afford 8 out-of-state kids? Do some kids pay their own tuition? And also, does it matter how big the senior class is?
If anyone is familiar with the recruiting process in terms of scholarships, I’d appreciate any help.
To CalSwimFan on the scholly $: The NCAA allows a maximum of 9.9 scholarships for DIv I men; however, that doesn’t mean the University will fund all 9.9. Luckily, in the PAC 12 the elite 4 teams USC, Cal, Stanford, and Arizona choose to fund all 9.9. In addition, the up and coming Utah program is fully funded. ASU, UCSB, and Cal Poly all receive limited funding with UCSB and Cal Poly being on the low end (approx 3 or 4 scholly’s funded).
Obviously at the big boy elite schools the demand for team spots is much greater than the scholly money available, which is why you will have NCAA qualifiers at sometimes 25% or less on those teams. If… Read more »
NC State and Harvard have also done really well this year. Nice to see that. Super curious to find out where Dressel and Lynch both go. What schools are they each considering, anyone know? Lynch potentially to USC?
If you re-read my post, I did say that ‘with Cal on par’ which means that they are about the same level as Michigan.
I used National times (World Championship Trials times) which I believe are faster than US Open times.
I mentioned international swimmers because I am sure a lot of people are not familiar with these swimmers when comparing them with US swimmers. For example, Evan White is the second best 200 all around swimmer after Bentz. Delaney who is ranked 174th on the college swimming site would be ranked 6th ALL TIME (in the history of US swimming) with his 100 Free time as a 16 year old in that age category,etc.
I in no way said… Read more »
*Meant for FanofSwimming
Lynch took trips to Michigan, Florida, Cal & USC (not sure of the 5th trip) Can’t imagine him going to Michigan with 10 verbals already – no $$ left & I heard USC is out.
Fifth trip was to Arizona.
Mark Szaranek just switched his commitment from Michigan to Florida. That really stings… I guess now Michigan has some money to give to Lynch if he decides to go there…
Gornay is actually ludicrously elite, not ultra-elite.
Nice now cal has
1. the prodigal son of cal
2. the ultra elite
5. josh prenot
Updated Power Rankings:
1. Prodigal Son
2. Ludicrously* elite
3. Borgy Borgensen
this just made my day
That’s a heck of a recruiting class.
And every single one of those recruits are from California. I wonder how much scholarship money they actually gave out…
Michigan only has 1 top recruit in Nick Arakelian and if history repeats itself, he won’t be going to Michigan (see Clay Youngquist and Will Hamilton).
Close, almost all of them. Connor Green is from MA/Blue Fish… Good point though. Cal did well with in-state swimmers. Where do you think Arakelian is headed?
See the latest headline for the answer to your question….
Yes, just saw that 🙂 Thx…interesting. He and sis will have fun then…good memories for both, I’m sure.
M_Fan- Don’t worry, trust your coach. He doesn’t seem to have any trouble finding and developing talent. You were right about Arakelian though.
Typo: It should be 43.89 for the 100 Free and not 53.89.
When you say “though it seems they’ll miss out on the big two from Cal,” are you referring to Lynch and Okubo?
Southern California has not gotten a single verbal I don’t think… just seems odd.
Also, Arizona is not recruiting well for the type of talent they are losing this year. If they don’t do something soon, they won’t be in the top 5 in years to come.
Yes, sorry, I meant Bolles.