Revisiting NCAA Recruit Rankings: Men’s High School Class of 2019

Each summer, college swimming fans look forward to recruiting – the lifeblood of any NCAA swim program. Since 2012, we’ve been ranking down the top NCAA prospects in the nation from each recruiting class. But sports are inherently unpredictable, and even the most sure-fire prospect can go awry or completely change their role over four years.

As we do each year, we’ll look back at the high school class of 2019, which just finished four years of college eligibility this spring.

First, a few notes:

• Most of the data we’re tracking here deals with NCAA scoring. Obviously, some swimmers are great assets for their teams in dual meets and conference competition without ever being national factors. While we don’t discount the impact of those types of swimmers, the difference in competition between various teams’ dual meet schedules and conference meets makes NCAA scoring the best “apples to apples” comparisons between swimmers.
• Relays are another point of contention, as a swimmer in a strong program has more opportunity for NCAA relays, though they also have more competition for those relay spots. We’ve left relay results out of the data below, except where specifically indicated. That, too, gives us a more fair comparison between athletes.
• We don’t rank diving recruits, but we have started to track individual diving scoring, which is helpful in determining how much of an impact a diver is likely to have on NCAA finish.
• We did our best to scour NCAA results over the past four-plus years, but it’s certainly possible we made a mistake in compiling our data. If you spot an error, please respectfully let us know in the comment section so we can update our work!

2023 Note: Due to swimmers being granted an extra year of eligibility after the 2020 NCAA cancelation, some of these athletes may still have years of scoring still to come.

We only include domestic recruits in our recruit rankings, as it’s often harder to predict if and when an international recruit will join the NCAA, and which class they should be ranked with. However, we’ve gone back through and tallied up all individual scorers that roughly fit into this class – international and domestic.

REVISITING OUR TOP 20

Check out this post for our analysis of the top 20 recruits in the high school class of 2019. This class was just the second in which we did a re-rank for the swimmers when they were high school seniors (previously the final rankings were done during their junior years only). Since the re-rank gives us the best gauge of where the athletes were coming into the NCAA, and therefore we get a better idea of who improved the most during their time in college, we’re using the re-ranked top-20 rather than the original rankings from their junior seasons.

Here’s a look at our top 10 recruits, plus how many individual points they scored at NCAAs in each of their four years:

Note: we’ve made an effort to put a dash (–) in a season in which an athlete didn’t compete (or was cut short due to injury) rather than “no invite”. If you see an error please let us know in the comments.

The Hits:

• Top-ranked Brendan Burns certainly lived up to the billing for Indiana, scoring 46 points in back-to-back seasons and amassing 121 over his three NCAA appearances—good for second in the class overall and first among ranked recruits by 22. Burns won the national title in the 200 fly as a sophomore, and followed up this past season by earning an upset victory in the 100 back while adding a runner-up showing in the 200 fly. He was a driving force behind’s Indiana fourth-place finish at NCAAs in 2023.
• #2 recruit Jake Foster was a reliable contributor for the Texas Longhorns in all three championships, scoring 28/30/28 for a total of 86 points. Foster scored in all nine individual events in which he raced in at NCAAs, earning back-to-back fifth-place finishes in the 400 IM in 2021 and 2022 and then securing top-eight finishes in the medley events this past season. As a senior, Foster notably made the ‘A’ final in the 200 IM (0.12), 400 IM (0.05) and the ‘B’ final of the 200 breast (0.13) by a combined three-tenths of a second. The point bumps he earned ultimately proved crucial as his Longhorn team held off Burns’ Hoosiers to place third at NCAAs.
• Another consistent scorer for Texas was Caspar Corbeau, who represents the Netherlands internationally but grew up in the U.S. club system. Corbeau scored 30+ points in all three NCAA appearances, including a runner-up finish in the 200 breast this past season, and was a key contributor for Texas on both free and medley relays.
• NC State’s Ross Dant put up near-identical point totals to Foster, having placed in the top three of 1650 free every year. Dant was third in both 2021 and 2022, and then had a memorable swim from the early heats this past season to ultimately take second to teammate Will Gallant.
• Cal’s Jason Louser was absent from championship season in 2021, missing both Pac-12s and NCAAs, but has put up double-digit points the last two seasons to help the Bears win consecutive team titles. As a senior, Louser made the first two ‘A’ finals of his career, placing fifth in the 400 IM and sixth in the 200 breast.
• A similar scenario goes for Louser’s teammate Liam Bell, who scratched the 2021 NCAAs while with Alabama and then transferred to Cal. Bell placed third in the 100 breast last year and then placed sixth in 2023 while also scoring in the 50 free, scoring 42 points across two NCAA appearances.

The Misses:

• Third-ranked Jack Walker (Virginia) qualified for NCAAs in his freshman and sophomore seasons, and was seeded to score in 2020 before the cancelation, but retired during the 2021-22 season.
• Another UVA recruit, #7 Jack Wright, was an ACC ‘A’ finalist in his first three seasons and has performed relay duties for the Cavaliers at three straight NCAAs, but never competed individually.
• Sean Conway also never scored, giving Virginia zero individual points despite having three swimmers ranked in the top 20.
• Texas’ Ethan Harder had some tough luck, as he was fast enough to qualify for NCAAs in each of his first three seasons (and close this year), but never competed as the Longhorns either didn’t enter him or scratched him due to roster numbers. His teammate Peter Larson only scored in one season, 2021, but was a member of the record-setting 800 free relay in 2023.
• Despite being a member of the U.S. National Team and representing the U.S. at the 2021 Short Course World Championships, NC State’s Hunter Tapp only scored in one event over three NCAA appearances, placing 11th in the 200 back last season.
• Ohio State’s Jonah Cooper never competed after the COVID pandemic, earning a pair of top-eight finishes at the 2020 Big Tens.
• Iowa commit/Wisconsin transfer Will Myhre typically had his best meet of the season at Big Tens and never scored at NCAAs. USC’s Max Saunders also didn’t scored individually, having never really improved much beyond his high school times.

OTHER IMPACTFUL RECRUITS IN THE HIGH SCHOOL CLASS OF 2019

Of course, not every contributor comes from our top 20 list. Some swimmers develop extremely well in college. Some swimmers slip under our radar, or don’t prove to be late bloomers once they hit the NCAA.

We dug through NCAA results to find the best American swimmers from this class to not appear on our top 20 list. Again, it’s not always easy to account for redshirt years, gap years or mistakes in an athlete’s listed class each season. So if we forgot anyone, please let us know in the comments.

DOMESTIC

Standouts:

• Emerging as the class’ top scorer as an unranked recruit, Brooks Curry‘s career at LSU has been nothing short of phenomenal, having broken out at the 2020 SEC Championships when he won the 100 freestyle as a freshman. Over three NCAA appearances, Curry was an ‘A’ finalist in eight of his nine individual events and picked up two national titles as a junior in the 50 and 100 free. His 128.5 points clears Burns for tops in the class, and is well over double the next-highest total from an unranked recruit.
• Ian Grum had a strong career at Georgia, highlighted by his fourth-place finish in the 200 back and sixth-place showing in the 400 IM this past season.
• Jack Hoagland missed last year’s NCAAs due to injury, but has placed fifth in the 1650 free in both of his NCAA appearances, scoring a total of 53 points. He was also seeded to score 28 in 2020.
• Will Gallant didn’t compete at NCAAs until his junior year, as after the 2020 meet was canceled, he announced he was transferring from Indiana to NC State midway through 2020-21. After placing second in the 1650 in 2022, Gallant went one better this past season, winning the national title in a best time of 14:28.94 while also scoring in the 500 free.
• Arizona State swimmers Alexander Colson, Andrew Gray and Julian Hill were all in the same boat as Gallant, with the Sun Devils redshirting the 2021 season. They combined to score 37 individual points this past season to help ASU place second in the team race.
• Hunter Armstrong is a clear standout in this group of athletes, but more so in long course meters, which is a primary reason why he turned pro after last season.

INTERNATIONAL

Standouts:

• After scoring 25 points individually in 2021, Eric Friese didn’t hit that same level in either of the next two seasons, but did contribute on three NCAA winning relays, including Florida’s 200 free relay in 2023 that broke Auburn’s 14-year-old super-suited NCAA and U.S. Open Record.
• Australian Leon MacAlister went from missing an NCAA invite in 2021 to scoring in two events last season, including a fifth-place finish in the 200 back. He narrowly missed scoring individually in 2023, but did contribute to Stanford’s medley relays that scored.
• Consistently a reliable scorer for Texas A&M at the SEC level, Andres Puente Bustamante broke through at NCAAs this past season by making the championship final in the 200 breast.

DIVING

Standouts:

• Ohio State’s Lyle Yost more than doubled up the rest of the divers in this class and ranks third overall, joining Curry and Burns with more than 100 points. Yost won the 1-meter event in 2023 while placing fifth on 3-meter and sixth on platform, and finished in scoring position in all nine of his NCAA entries. He was responsible for 41.5 percent of the Buckeyes’ points to help propel them to a 11th-place finish at the 2023 NCAAs.
• Leonardo Garcia transferred from Mizzou to Florida after his freshman year and contributed points in three straight seasons for the Gators, including a total of three top-eight finishes.
• Maxwell Flory was a main component in Miami (FL) finishing inside the top 25 (23rd) in the past two seasons despite having no swimmers. Another Hurricane, Brodie Scapens, scored 26 points in 2021 with two ‘A’ final appearances, and then sat out last year and placed 21st on 3-meter this past season.

ALL INDIVIDUAL SCORERS IN THE CLASS

(Ranked recruits are listed with their 2018 rank. International recruits are listed with “INTL” and unranked recruits with “NR.” Diving recruits are listed with “DIVE”)

ARCHIVES: REVISITING RECRUIT RANKINGS