Ranking The 2022 Men’s NCAA Recruiting Classes: #9-12

See also:

• Men’s #13-16
• Men’s Honorable Mentions
• Individual recruit rankings – Girls final rankings
• Individual recruit rankings – Boys final rankings

We continue our 2022 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 2022-2023 season.

A few important notes on our rankings:

• The rankings listed are based on our Class of 2022 Re-Rank. “HM” refers to our honorable mentions and “BOTR” refers to our best of the rest section for top-tier recruits.
• 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.
• Some teams had not released a finalized 2022-23 team roster at the time these articles were published, meaning it’s possible we missed some names. Let us know in the comments below.

Best NCAA Swimming & Diving Recruiting Classes: Men’s Class of 2022

Previously ranked:

• #16: Princeton Tigers / Cal Golden Bears (tie)
• #15: Georgia Bulldogs
• #14: Kentucky Wildcats
• #13: Wisconsin Badgers

#12: Indiana Hoosiers

• Top-tier additions: Ahmed Hafnaoui (Tunisia – distance), Armando Vegas (Texas transfer – fly), Drew Reiter (IA – IM), Harry Herrera (FL – breast), Kai Van Westering (France – back), Alex Stone (IA – free)
• The rest: Alejandro Kincaid (IN – fly/back), Ben Stevenson (OH – free), Chris Holmes (IN – free/fly)

Olympic champion Ahmed Hafnaoui of Tunisia is the huge name, and nearly a household one within the swimming community after his memorable Olympic upset in the 400 free. He’s maybe a bigger name than an NCAA value, though, as he’s a distance swimmer in an NCAA format that just doesn’t offer as much scoring potential to distance types. Hafnaoui has been 3:43.3 in the long course 400 free, which converts to roughly 4:10 in yards and makes him a likely NCAA scorer coming in the door. He should also be an early mile scorer, though his best potential for NCAA points is improving his 200 free into relay scoring potential.

Indiana also got Texas butterfly transfer Armando Vegas, a 47.2/1:43.2 flyer who could get to NCAA scoring level in the near future. He’ll be a junior this season.

The Hoosiers mined the state of Iowa for 1:47.3 IMer Drew Reiter and 20.4/44.9 sprinter Alex Stone. Also of note: French backstroke Kai Van Westering (54.9/2:00.3 long course backstrokers convert to roughly 46.6/1:45.9) and 54.8/1:58.6 breaststroke Harry Herrera.

#11: Michigan Wolverines

• Top-tier additions: Eitan Ben-Shitrit (Israel – IM), HM Logan Zucker (NC – free), BOTR Ozan Kalafat (WI – breast), Clark Wakeland (Georgia Tech transfer – free), Lucas Hodgson (CT – free), Bryce Halterman (CA – free), Tyler Ray (MI – fly), Nikola Acin (Purdue transfer – free), Eduardo Moraes (Penn State transfer – distance)
• The rest: Jack Luken (AZ – distance), Kevin Maas (MI – free), Matthew Kroll (NC – breast), Eduardo Moraes

Michigan also got a key international IMer to add to their roster with this class. Israel’s Eitan Ben-Shitrit is 2:01/4:19.0 in the long course meter IMs, converting to about 1:44.5/3:44.7. Those times should give him a great shot at earning an NCAA invite as a rookie.

Michigan has some big hitters elsewhere in its class, too. Logan Zucker and Clark Wakeland join a mid-distance free group that’s had a lot of success recently. Zucker is 1:35.5/4:19.4 in the 200/500 frees, while Wakeland (a Georgia Tech transfer with one year of eligibility remaining) is 1:35.4/4:17.

On the sprintier end, Lucas Hodgson is 19.9 in the 50 free and still developing a little more 100 free range with a 44.4 lifetime-best. Ozan Kalafat is a solid two-distance breaststroker with times of 53.7 and 1:56.7. The class also has 46.9 flyer Bryce Halterman and 47.3 flyer Tyler Ray.

Nikola Acin, a fifth-year transfer out of Purude, will significantly bolster the free relays and could challenge to score individually. Eduardo Moraes comes over from Penn State with potential to make an impact in the mid-distance events as well.

#10: Notre Dame Fighting Irish

• Top-tier additions: #17 Tommy Janton (PA – back), HM Tate Bacon (NC – fly), BOTR Marcus Gentry (OR – back), BOTR Ryan Malicki (IN – breast), BOTR Jack Anderson (KY – IM)
• The rest: Connor Lathrop (IN – IM), Dillon Edge (OH – free), Michael Flynn (IL – distance)

This is an outstanding class for Notre Dame, including a top-20 recruit and four more names from our honorable mention and best of the rest sections.

Tommy Janton is one of the better backstrokers in this national freshman class, with best times of 46.7 and 1:42.0, both close to NCAA invite level. He’ll have company in the backstroke group with fellow freshman Marcus Gentry (47.2/1:45.7).

Notre Dame has the makings of a pretty good all-freshman medley relay. Tate Bacon is a 46.4 sprint butterflyer with some good sprint free speed too. Ryan Malicki is 53.4 in the 100 breast, and also sub-2:00 in the 200 breast (he’s 1:59.0 there).

Jack Anderson addsa 1:47.8/3:49.0 speed in the IMs. And keep an eye on 1:36.9 200 freestyler Michael Flynn out of neighboring Illinois along with 20.9/45.5/1:36.1 freestyler Dillon Edge, a versatile prospect who is also 1:47.1 in the 200 IM and 54.8 in the 100 breast.

#9: Tennessee Volunteers

• Top-tier additions: #7 Nick Simons (OR – back), Landon Driggers (AZ – IM), Guilherme Caribe (Brazil – free)
• The rest: Martin Espernberger (FL – fly), Pep Arnwine (TN – free), Ryan Williams (CA – free), Jack Little (ASU transfer – free), Owen Redfearn (VA – diving), Nick Stone (TX – diving), Charlie Krone (IN – distance/fly)

Nick Simons was our #7 recruit in the nation, holding the best times of any American high school senior in the 100 back (46.3) and 200 back (1:40.7). The latter of those times would have earned an NCAA invite in 2022. Simons is also a 1:47.2 IMer with lots of potential to develop into a big-time NCAA scorer and relay contributor.

Speaking of relays, Brazilian sprinter Guilherme Caribe should be a big player there. He’s got long course meter best times of 22.7 and 49.7 in sprint free, converting roughly to 19.8 and 43.3 in the short course yards 50 and 100 frees.

Elsewhere in the class, Landon Driggers is a 1:47.5/3:47.5 IMer who will probably also swim the 200 back (1:44.5). Martin Espernberger is a 47.8 butterflyer and both Pep Arnwine and Ryan Williams are 45-second 100 freestylers.