See also:
- Women’s honorable mentions
- Women’s classes #13-16
- Women’s classes #9-12
- Women’s classes #5-8
- Men’s honorable mentions
- Men’s classes #13-16
- Men’s classes #9-12
- Men’s classes #5-8
- Men’s classes #1-4
- Individual recruit rankings – Girls final rankings (April 2020)
- Individual recruit rankings – Boys final rankings (April 2020)
We continue our spring recruiting series with a team-by-team look at the best recruiting classes entering the NCAA next season. The classes below are projected freshmen for the 2020-2021 season. Of course, the coronavirus pandemic presents a number of wrinkles to this analysis: some athletes didn’t get a senior-year taper meet. Some high-end recruits may opt to defer their enrollment for a year to prepare for the Tokyo Olympics. There’s also still the possibility that the 2020-2021 school year is delayed, along with NCAA sports. All things considered, these ranks are based on the 2020-2021 NCAA season happening, but as we usually view these recruiting classes over their projected four years of college swimming, a potential delay or cancellation of the upcoming season doesn’t have as big an impact on this analysis as it would seem.
A few important notes on our rankings:
- The rankings listed are based on our Class of 2020 Re-Rank from just last month. “HM” refers to our honorable mentions.
- Like most of our rankings, these placements are subjective. We base our team ranks on a number of factors: prospects’ incoming times are by far the main factor, but we also consider potential upside in the class, class size, relay impact and team needs filled. Greater weight is placed on known success in short course yards, so foreign swimmers are slightly devalued based on the difficulty in converting long course times to short course production.
- Transfers are included.
- For the full list of all verbally committed athletes, click here. A big thank-you to SwimSwam’s own Anne Lepesant for compiling that index – without it, rankings like these would be far less comprehensive.
Previously ranked:
- #16: Texas A&M Aggies
- #15: Alabama Crimson Tide
- #14: Georgia Bulldogs
- #13: Virginia Tech H2Okies
- #12: Northwestern Wildcats
- #11: Ohio State Buckeyes
- #10: Michigan Wolverines
- #9: NC State Wolfpack
- #8: Tennessee Volunteers
- #7: Wisconsin Badgers
- #6: Louisville Cardinals
- #5: USC Trojans
#4: Cal Golden Bears
- Top-tier additions: #5 Isabelle Stadden (MN – back), Emily Gantriis (Denmark – free), HM Nicole Oliva (CA – free), Tea Laughlin (CA – back)
- The rest: Mara Allen (CA – free), Francesca Colby (CA – diving), Kayla Haigh (CA – diving)
Cal has a great outgoing backstroke group (Keaton Blovad, Courtney Mykkanen) and luckily for them, the national recruiting class is one of the strongest backstroke fields in years. Cal got the third-best backstroke recruit, and she’s still a legitimate All-American contender in both distances as a freshman. Isabelle Stadden is 51.2/1:50.3 out of high school. The Minnesota Aquajet follows in the footsteps of another former Aquajet-to-Cal backstroker, one Rachel Bootsma.
Denmark’s Emily Gantriis helps cover for Cal’s other big graduation: star sprinter Abbey Weitzeil. Gantriis is 25.4 and 55.6 in long course freestyle, even swimming up to 2:01 in the 200 free. That should make her an instant relay swimmer across all three relay distances.
Nicole Oliva was a really intriguing prospect – she’s a national teamer for the Philippines, but attended high school in the U.S. Oliva has outstanding freestyle range (16:28/4:42/1:46.3 are her best times, but she’s also 23.6/49.9 in the sprints) and should be an effective college swimmer.
Tea Laughlin adds 52.5/1:55.9 backstroke speed to help fill in depth behind Stadden. Meanwhile Cal got two California-based divers and 23.3/50.6 freestyler Mara Allen for a very California-based class.
#3: Texas Longhorns
- Top-tier additions: #4 Olivia Bray (VA – fly/back), #9 Emma Sticklen (TX – fly/back), Anna Elendt (Germany – breast), Grace Cooper (IL – free), Sydney Silver (CO – back), Bridget O’Neil (TX – diving)
- The rest: Ava Longi (TX – free), Ellie McLeod (TX – free/breast)
Texas loads up on flyers with this class. Olivia Bray and Emma Sticklen are both 51-second-or-better flyers out of high school (Bray is 50.1 and nearly into the 49s), with outstanding 200 range (1:53.7 for Bray; 1:54.5 for Sticklen) and great backstrokes (52.0 for Bray; 53.0 for Sticklen). Both should also help reload the relays with the graduation of five-relay swimmer Claire Adams. Bray is 22.7/49.2/1:46.3 in freestyle and Sticklen 22.5/49.6/1:47.8.
If those two domestic recruits aren’t enough, Texas supplemented with German breaststroker Anna Elendt, who is a 1:08.0 in long course meters. Elendt swims very well down to the 50 breast (30.5 long course) and also up to 2:29.7 in the 200, and should be a multi-event scorer early in her career.
Divers tend to be harder to project, but in-state pickup Bridget O’Neil looks like one of the top freshmen divers in the country. She was a bronze medalist at 2018 Youth Olympic Games on 3-meter and joins a Texas diving group that has been sensational for a long time.
22.3/49.0 Grace Cooper adds even more relay depth to a team with a ton of freestyle talent. Sydney Silver is a backstroker (53.4/1:55.8) who should help that group rebuild in Adams’ absence. And in-state pickups Ava Longi (23.1/50.3/1:51.3 free) and Ellie McLeod (23.5/50.1/1:50.0) just add to the wealth of depth Texas has in their relay stockpile.
#2: Virginia Cavaliers
- Top-tier additions: #2 Alex Walsh (TN – breast/IM/everything), #10 Anna Keating (VA – breast), #11 Emma Weyant (FL – IM/distance free), #13 Abby Harter (VA – fly/IM), Quinn Schaedler (TX – free)
- The rest: Sophia Wilson (England – IM/breast)
It’s a really, really tough decision between the top two recruiting classes here. Virginia got an amazing all-around recruit in Alex Walsh, who probably projects best as a breaststroker/IMer (58.19/2:05.8 breaststroke; 1:53.6/4:07.9 IM), but could also swim backstroke (50.8/1:51.4) or freestyle (22.0/48.9/1:45.0). Walsh is going to be a massive addition to Virginia’s fast-rising relays, and with the success Kate Douglass had there as a freshman, you have to be excited about Walsh’s potential in the 200 IM.
Anna Keating is a big in-state pickup, a 59.0/2:09.2 breaststroker who can chip in behind Walsh or even take over the breaststrokes if Walsh focuses elsewhere.
Emma Weyant is an elite long course IMer who doesn’t have the same kind of short course production yet, but has an incredible ceiling. We’d expect to see her focus in on the 400 IM (4:07.6) and 500 free (4:40.8) in Virginia. She’d be joined in a burgeoning IM group by British import Sophia Wilson, who is 2:17 and 4:53 in long course meters.
Virginia just graduated key relay contributors Morgan Hill and Megan Moroney. Ranked recruit Abby Harter should help pitch in to fill the butterfly gap left by Hill – she’s 52.3 in the 100 and 1:54.7 in the 200. And then Virginia got a late add from Quinn Schaedler, who changed her commitment from Michigan to UVA, bringing 1:45.9/48.8/22.8 freestyle speed.
#1: Stanford Cardinal
- Top-tier additions: #1 Regan Smith (MN – back/everything), #6 Lillie Nordmann (TX – fly/free), #15 Janelle Rudolph (WA – free/back), #18 Samantha Pearson (CA – free), HM Isabel Gormley (NY – IM/free)
- The rest: none
Stanford’s class has one less member than Virginia’s, but also two of our top six recruits nationwide. #1 Regan Smith is one of the all-time greats – we ranked her as the best NCAA swimming prospect of the past decade, and didn’t get a whole lot of pushback from anyone. That speaks to Smith’s absurd resume. She’s the American record-holder in the 200 back (1:47.1) and the presumptive NCAA favorite in the 100 back (49.6). She’s the world record-holder in the long course 100 and 200 backs. She’s the fastest 200 flyer (1:51.2 in yards) of anyone in this recruiting class, and also leads the national recruiting class ranks in the 500 free (4:37.1), 200 free (1:43.27), and 100 free (48.07). There’s just no overstating how big an impact Smith will likely have in her freshman season – and she recently confirmed she will attend Stanford, rather than deferring her enrollment until after the Tokyo Olympics.
Lillie Nordmann is awfully good in her own right. A 1:43.6 freestyler, Nordmann could pair with Smith as the bookends of a lethal 800 free relay for years. Nordmann is also 52.0/1:53.2 in butterfly and should score early in her career.
Other ranked recruits Janelle Rudolph and Samantha Pearson bolster sprint depth. Rudolph is 22.2/48.2 in free with a 52.4 backstroke to boot. Pearson is 22.5/48.9/1:45.8. With this five-person recruiting class alone, Stanford could put together a composite 3:14.1 400 free relay (would have been 14th at 2019 NCAAs) and 6:58.9 800 free relay (13th in 2019):
- Smith: 48.0/1:43.2
- Nordmann: 49.0/1:43.6
- Rudolph: 48.2/1:46.3
- Pearson: 48.9/1:45.8
And that’s not even accounting for relay exchanges, or the three other highly-ranked recruiting classes Stanford already has on its roster. The other incoming freshman is Isabel Gormley, an honorable mention just outside our top 20 nationally who intrigues with a 4:08.8 IM and a 4:45.3 freestyle.
Smith wins the 500, 100 back, 200 back at NCAAs? Splits a 1:40, 47.5, on her free relays and 23.2, 49.5 on the backstroke relays. It looks like at least 3 individual wins and Stanford will win the 800 relay. I don’t want to go through the brain damage to predict the other relays right now but she could potentially win the others as well.
She is soooooo good, its so cool to see.
Regan Smith is better at the 100 fly than the 500 free as evident by her performance in Des Moines at the 2020 TYR Pro Swim Series.
Wow, I kept hoping to see Arizona in each article as the classes got better and better. What happened?
Arizona has one very solid international, Amalie Mortensen, who is 55.9 and 2:01.6 in long course free. They’ve got two 53-second butterflyers, too, but it’s more of a developmental class at this point, unless there’s another name we haven’t seen yet.
Braden what in God’s name are you doing putting the Hoos at NUMBER 2??? You’re gonna eat your words come March!
I didn’t write this, dan.
Eat his words? They aren’t predicting the finish at the 2021 NCAA Championships!
Hoos lose.
Not to NCSU though.
Hoos were gonna smack Cal, Stanford, Tenn and Michigan if NCAA’s occurred this year. We NEVER LOSE. Snarky, indeed.
I’m the one you should be mad at. Though Alum15 is correct that this is not a prediction of who scores more points this March. It’s about which schools have the best incoming classes right now, based on past swims. What each college coaching staff does with these recruiting classes will have a lot of say in which ones score the most points over their NCAA careers.
First it was gripes about Tennessee, then Auburn, now Virginia. Sounds like sour grapes to me.
It’s all part of the fun 🙂 college swimming fans are very supportive of their teams, and as much as I trust my own research and rankings, it’s fun to hear what our readers think. The discussion is exactly what we hope for when we post our rankings!
One can be supportive of a college swimming program but the over the top proclamations of the irrational college swimming fan has become absurd. Let the long course performance do the talking:
USA Swimming (usaswimming.org)
Times
The Data Hub & General Information
U.S. and World Lists
2019 Top Performers
Gender:
Course: LCM
Event:
If you can’t run with the big dogs, stay on the porch.
Low key, promising the fans of a certain Eagle’d program answers to why they weren’t included in other articles on this article and then this comment being the first mention of that program made me laugh so hard.
I did go back and respond to that comment on the 5-8 post yesterday morning, right after this post went live. Here was my comment:
Now that ranks are completely published – felt there was a dropoff from the nine schools we listed as honorable mentions to the next 3-4 that didn’t make the list. Most of those just outside (Kentucky, Minnesota, Auburn) were big, well-rounded classes, but without any really immediate-impact types in the mix.
As far as Auburn goes, the class is nicely rounded. But when you compare to our honorable mentions, they’re just a little behind in every stroke. Harvard has arguably three better breaststrokers (1:00.7/2:12.3; 1:01.8/2:13.8, 1:01.0/2:16) and two better sprinters… Read more »
Deep down inside, you know Regan Smith will slaughter Alex Walsh in the backstroke events. Just admit it! Alex Walsh better stick to the IM to avoid the humiliation.
For people who didn’t get it, I believe this is a parody on “Desorbo Effect.”
The question is did he see his shadow?
https://virginiasports.com/sports/swimming-and-diving/coaches
What’s Regan going to swim at NCAAs as a third event? 200 fly? 200 IM? I think it’s pretty hard to excel at the 500 free and a 100 of stroke at the same time, but if anyone can do it, it’s probably her.
as great of a swimmer as she is, 2BK/2FL double is bananas.
That’s a great question. I see her following the footsteps of a lot of elite, versatile recruits (Missy Franklin, Kathleen Baker, Beata Nelson, Kate Douglass) and swimming the 200 IM. Seems to fit really nicely as a third event with almost any other event combo. 200 fly/200 back double would probably hit Smith’s overall best events, but doing that combo twice, along with a likely 400 free relay leg on day 4 of NCAAs just seems brutal, and probably wouldn’t allow her to be at her best in any of the three events. 500 free is an intriguing dark horse, but Stanford is already so strong there (Forde, Pitzer, Tankersley) that it probably makes more sense to spread out their… Read more »
IM, huh? She’s *only* a 1:56 lifetime best.
Yeah, that’s true, but 1:56 is actually quite good for a high school IMer – we tend to see a lot of time drops in the IMs, specifically, in college. For example, Missy was 1:55.3 out of high school, and wound up going 1:52.1 as a college sophomore. Beata Nelson was 1:57.5 out of high school and 1:50.7 by her junior year. Kate Douglass was 1:56.0 in high school and went 1:51.3 as a college freshman, despite not even getting an NCAA swim. For whatever reason, it seems like top juniors don’t focus on the 200 IM too often, which would definitely be the case for Regan, whose career-best is a two-year-old in-season swim from a Sectional meet.
Her 1:56, while outstanding for any high schooler, is even more impressive if you have ever watched her breastroke. Only thing she does in the pool hat’s not … well, pretty. FWIW, her 1:56.6 at Winter Juniors in Dec 2016 (as a 14 yo) was more impressive, than the 1:56.5 15 mos later at Akron in Mar 2018. For comparison, her splits were 24.4, 27.1, 36.8 and 28.1 in Akron; and 24.5, 27.6, 36.7 and 27.7 in Dec. 2016.
Agree that the 2 back/2 fly double with a relay on one day is probably too much too ask, but I just wonder whether it wold be easier for her in the 500.
How much enphasis will be placed on training the breaststroke in a Summer Olympics year?
Women’s 100 Yard Butterfly
Regan Smith set a personal best in the women’s 100m butterfly (57.34) at the 2020 TYR Pro Swim Series in Des Moines.
Right – I think 1 fly would make more sense than IM (understanding it’s a few events before 1 back on same day).
Regan Smith recenty pulled a women’s 200m butterfly – women’s 100m backstroke double at the 2020 TYR Pro Swim Series in Knoxville.
https://youtu.be/bCPhKUhoTf4
To the fans of the Virginia Cavaliers, where is Walsh?
I do agree 100 fly/100 back is probably the most logical choice – wouldn’t be surprised to see that be the solution. IM is a dark horse option, I think, just based on some other swimmers of Smith’s caliber who have broken out in collegiate IMs.
Will there be a men’s list soon?
yes
Check back tomorrow morning – we’ll start our ranks then!
Cal also got Isabella Riley 🙂
Didn’t Olivia Bray almost break 50 in the 100 fly recently?
I’m really cheering for the Texas women. This is an awesome class and maybe their year for a top 5-6 finish and some momentum for a much needed top-3 trophy in the future. Also, didn’t Cal get a decent sprint/breaststroke recruit from Washington?
I think they originally got a verbal from Gracie Felner, a versatile sprinter from WA, but she changed her commitment to Alabama.