Singapore Record Holder, Junior National Champion Nick Mahabir Commits to Cal

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The defending NCAA Men’s Swimming & Diving Champions from Cal have turned on Dranchise Mode and are reloading in a big way. Nick Mahabir, an Honorable Mention top recruit in the high school class of 2024, verbally committed to the Golden Bears on Saturday. His commitment comes a day after the defending Commonwealth Games champion Pieter Coetze from South Africa announced his commitment.

Mahabir lives and trains in San Diego, but represents Singapore internationally.

Mahabir’s is the best long course breaststroker in the class. At just 16-years old, he is already the Singapore National Record holder in the 100 meter breaststroke with his best of 1:00.37 from the US National Championships in July. His 50 breast time of 28.11 and his 200 breast time of 2:12.07 are not far off those National Records either.

At the Junior Pan Pac Championships in August, which featured top juniors from countries like Canada, Australia, and the US, he won bronze medals in both the 100 and 200 breaststrokes. He was also the US Junior National Champion in both events.

Mahabir trains with Team Elite in San Diego – the David Marsh-affiliated elite training group that is currently based out of Coronado Swim Association. Marsh was recently named the associate head coach of the women’s swimming & diving program at Cal, which has combined under Dave Durden since Teri McKeever was put on a Leave of Absence earlier this year.

A fairly-pure breaststroker, his 3rd event is probably the 200 IM in a college format.

Mahabir’s Best Times

Cal’s top two breaststrokers Liam Bell and Reece Whitley finished 3rd and 4th, respectively, in the 100 breast at last year’s NCAA Championships. They also finished 9th and 7th, respectively, in the 200 breaststroke. Both swimmers will be out of eligibility by the time Mahabir arrives.

That doesn’t mean that the cupboard will be empty for a deep Cal team, though. This year’s roster features a pair of freshmen, Luca Gissendaner and Hank Rivers, who both swam 53 seconds in the 100 breaststroke in high school. They’ll also bring in Roman Jones, who was 53.8 as a high school breaststroker, last season.

While Cal is in a two year period (last year and this year) that will see them graduate a ton of their NCAA points, they continue to back-fill their roster with depth in almost every part of the swimming lineup.

Mahabir is already the 8th verbal commitment for Cal early in the commitment process for juniors. Besides Mahabir and Coetze, that class includes Speedo Winter Juniors runner-up Lucca Battaglini, Florida 2nd-best recruit Carter Lancaster, Thackston McMullan, August Vetsch, Edward Huang, and Freddy Klein.

Klein trains at SwimMAC Carolina, where Marsh was formerly the head coach.

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