Mid-Season Check In: How Are the NCAA Freshmen Men Faring So Far?

Editor’s Note: we have discovered several errors in our processing of the freshmen top 10. They have now been corrected below.

How freshmen do as they break into the NCAA is always a hot topic. You have the set of stars who have been killing it at the age group level, or the international standouts who are making a name for themselves at big meets. You have the swimmers with less national name recognition who hit their stride and blow up in college. Athletes respond differently to their new campus, new training atmosphere, new schedule, new friends, and new challenges. A freshman who starts off the year hot might not close out on a high note, and vice versa.

So, here’s a look at the top 10 in every NCAA event. Freshmen men only. Here is a link to our women’s ranks.

Of course there will be many names all over these lists that we’re very familiar with, such as Drew Kibler, Jack Levant, Reece Whitley, Patrick Callan, Alexei Sancov, Matthew Willenbring, etc. but there have also been several breakout swimmers in the freshmen class in the first half of this season.

• Charlie Scheinfeld came to Texas as a fairly typical upper-tier breaststroke recruit. To keep it short and sweet, he has exploded. Scheinfeld came into the NCAA as a 53.6 100 breaststroker, and has dropped all the way to 51.4 in just one semester. He’s dropped from 1:55.9 to 1:52.7 in the 200 breast. On top of that, he has proven himself to be very competitive when competing against the likes of Ian Finnerty and Carsten Vissering in medley relays.
• Mazen Shoukri (Grand Canyon), an Egyptian native, has already began making a big impact on a GCU team that is only in its 2nd year of full NCAA eligibility. He has found success in the 50, where he’s been 19.87 so far this season, and he’s really shining in the 100 free currently, having swum a 43.40. His immediate impact has helped the Lopes maintain their national relay rankings even after a few key graduations.
• Shaine Casas (Texas A&M) was an Honorable Mention in our list of the high school class of 2018 recruits, but he has proven himself to be one of the most impactful freshmen in the NCAA this season. You’ll find Casas ranked 1st in the 100 back (45.99), 1st in the 200 back (1:40.04), 2nd in the 200 IM (1:43.06), and 3rd in the 100 fly (46.70).
• Marci Barta (Notre Dame) was expected to be a fast IM’er based on his LCM 400 IM best time of 4:15, and he has definitely done a great job of bringing down his yards time to be on the same level as his meters time. Barta has been 3:41.67 so far in the 400 IM, the fastest freshmen by 3 seconds, and the 2nd fastest overall in the NCAA.

Also, here are some team stats based on how many times each team shows up on these lists:

• Texas is unsurprisingly leading the way with their killer freshmen class, having a total of 19 swims make the top 10 rankings. Sprint star Daniel Krueger als0 didn’t get a mid-season invite due to illness, and it can be reasonably stated that he would have cracked the top 10 in class, which would have boosted Texas’ numbers into the 20s.
• Florida has the 2nd highest number of swims in these rankings, which is again not too surprising due to the strength of their freshmen class. Florida comes in at 12 total swims in these rankings, and they have a swimmer in the top 10 in every event, except the 2 breaststroke events.
• Texas A&M has 10 swims in the event top 10’s from their freshman class, third-most of any team. 5 of those belong to Casas, and another 3 belong to sprint freestyler Clayton Bobo. Casas and Bobo are the 4th-and-5th best freshmen in the 50 freestyle, respectively. Overall, those times rank 25th and 40th, respectively.

Number of top-10 event rankings by team: