Nate Biondi, a senior at Sierra Canyon High School in Chatsworth, California, has verbally committed to swim for the University of California, Berkeley next season. As such, Biondi follows in the footsteps of his father, three-time Olympian Matt Biondi, who graduated from Cal in 1988.
Biondi crashed onto the local scene in Southern California at CIF-Southern Section Division III Championships last May, when he won the 100/200 free double seemingly out of nowhere. His family had moved to California from Hawaii when he began high school. Until then, Biondi had favored basketball, but upon arriving to the mainland, he found he wasn’t quite strong enough in that sport to be a starter on his high school’s team, so he turned to swimming with a vengeance. He didn’t swim at CIF as a freshman, but made the A finals of the 200 free (9th with 1:48.34) and 100 free (4th with 48.18). To be fair, he’d been faster in prelims (1:46.58 and 48.01), but still, it was a totally different Nate Biondi who showed up at 2016 CIF. This time he had solid swims in prelims, then monstrous drops in finals: 1:45.66p/1:43.07f in the 200 and 46.99p/46.57f; he also went 21.81 leading off the Sierra Canyon 200 free relay. All of which combined to elevate Sierra Canyon boys’ team to 8th in the final standings.
You can see our interview with him below.
At the time he was swimming with the club team Conejo Simi Swim Club, but moved to Canyons Aquatic Club over the summer. He had a nice showing at Stanford Futures, competing in the 50/100/200m freestyles (24.85/53.74/2:02.35) but didn’t final. Still, he improved by -0.7/-1.6/-1.6, respectively, in those three events year-over-year.
Biondi continues to progress. He earned his first Winter Juniors cut earlier this month, with a 45.65 in the 100y free. His best SCY times are:
- 50 free – 21.26
- 100 free – 45.65
- 200 free – 1:43.07
- 100 back – 53.90
- 100 fly – 53.72
- 200 IM – 2:00.50
So excited to announce my verbal commitment to swim for the University of California Berkeley next year! Go Bears!???? pic.twitter.com/UdGzP5pYKQ
— Nate Biondi (@Nate_Biondi) November 14, 2016
If you have a commitment to report, please send an email with a photo (landscape, or horizontal, looks best) and a quote to [email protected]
AB
As of early March 2017 Matt has lowered his 50 free to 20.41 and 44.84 in the 100 free. He has dropped 3.5 sec in his 50 and 7.04 sec from his Dec 2014 best times. My very rough guess would put both free sprint times in the top 15 or so for the 2017 class (very happy for Braden’s input here). My guess is that most D1 coaches would be delighted to have Matt on their team, but Durden has the slight advantage of being able to offer a California student in-state tuition rates to help with a fraction of a scholarship (if any).
For those who claim Biondi is only on the Cal squad due to his… Read more »
Sounds like Nate’s current coach might be pretty good.
Nate just went 20.2 and 44.3 in the 50 and 100 Free at CIF D3 prelims. Sounds like Cal got a steal now. My guess is Durden saw something more than just a last name when he offered him a walk on spot. Also, 45.5 as a Junior when he was going 51 as a freshman is a nice trajectory. Nate could def dip under 20 and 44 at finals. How many seniors this year went :19 and :43?
2 corrections from my post
lies instead of liars
at the expense of instead of to the expense of
Back to Biondi, is there a recent race video to see his technique in the water?
Let me help some of you kiddie commenters on something;
I remember Matt Biondi’s background quite well. He, and his brother, were primarily water polo players and “summer league swimmers” in Moraga.
Matt wasn’t the pearl of all eyes in the swimming world until his senior year of high school when he started to emphasize training more and dropped serious time to go 44 low in the 100 free at the high school CIF meet. Three months later he went 49 in the 100 meter long course to make the Olympic 1984 4×100 relay & won his first Olympic gold medal.
Matt continued to play water polo at Cal (quite well, I’d add) but forged ahead to put together… Read more »
Yes. This.
We Bear Fans are excited to have him along with the rest of our class. Welcome to the Bear Family, fellas.
Thanks for the back ground. I really don’t understand why we’ve seen so many negative comments on these commitment announcements…clearly not directed at you Joel. I remember all the criticism on Dressel’s decision to go to Florida. Seems to have worked out great for him. The fastest people coming out of HS don’t always end up the fastest in college. It happens. There are also people that come out of nowhere and become studs. It happens. If you take away the name, he becomes an athlete/late comer to year round swimming that is going to a top program based on his development trajectory. I seem to recall other programs, like Texas and Tennessee to name a couple, that took chances… Read more »
Agree with everything here (I grew up next door, in Lafayette), though at the risk of nit-picking, Matt’s 100 free time at the CIF meet was 45 low (45.04 to be precise). A great achievement, regardless, and congratulations to him on his son’s success.
egg
So proud of you Nate!
Great for him, to hell with any naysayers. This is the kind of swimmer that is going to thrive in college and if Cal didn’t give him a chance I’m sure they would have wished they did in about 2 years.
When I first read this I thought how brave it was for him to attend the same university his Olympian father achieved so much at knowing he’d likely have to deal with all the comparisons. I just looked at the latest USA Swimming event rankings by age group and his 100 time from some random club meet ranks 9th for 17 year olds, recognizing that several performances may be missing from that list Regardless, it is a solid time for this point of the season. I also read an article after his state meet last year where he talks about how he now really loves swimming. I believe that passion is materializing in his results. Best wishes and congrats to… Read more »
I’m not going to reply to everyone personally offended by my comment individually, but I stand by it. If his name was not Biondi he would not have a roster spot at cal.
Yeah but you’re overlooking that the name Biondi + his relative inexperience functions as a signal that he might become a very good swimmer for Cal with the right training. It’s not just useless nepotism.
This kid just went 45 mid in season 100 free after never really committing to swimming and looks to be dropping nearly every time he swims. He also swims for one of the best sprint coaches in the world and has decent DNA w regards to swimming. Given those factors, i’d say he is worth a roster spot. Not offended in the least by Rooker’s opinion, just think it’s nonsense as is usually the case for Rooker’s dribble.
U mad?
Welcome to the world.
Per the SWIMS database his best time in the SCY 100 free went from 51.82 in 2014, to 47.48 in 2015, to 45.65 in 2016. That kind of improvement is going to raise a few eyebrows regardless of what your last name is.