Stanford Men Kick Off Class of 2025 Recruiting with Verbal from Gabe Machado

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Boise YMCA’s Gabe Machado, a distance specialist, is the first known public commitment to the Stanford men’s class of 2025. He’s a rising senior at Bishop Kelly High School.

I am very excited to announce that I will be continuing my academic and athletic career at Stanford University. It has been a childhood dream of mine to attend this school and I can’t believe that it is coming true. Since I first stepped on campus I knew this was the place for me. I would like to thank my friends, teammates, coaches, and especially my family for getting me to where I am today. I can’t wait to join this awesome team and community. #GoCard#FeartheTree

TOP TIMES (SCY)

• 200 free – 1:39.72
• 500 free – 4:30.59
• 1000 free – 9:19.42
• 1650 free – 15:32.54
• 100 back – 49.67
• 200 back – 1:45.28
• 200 IM – 1:52.92
• 400 IM – 3:57.22

At the 2019 YMCA SC Nationals last April, Machado’s top swim came in the 1650 free, where he claimed third place with a lifetime best 15:32.54. His highest finish at the 2019 Speedo Junior Nationals last summer came in the 200 back, where he went a lifetime best 2:05.11 in LCM. The most recent big meet Machado swam at was the 2019 Speedo Winter Junior Champs – West, where he clocked lifetime bests in the 200 free, 500 free, 100 back, 200 back and 400 IM. He finished 10th overall in the 200 back at that meet.

In high school swimming, Machado is the reigning Idaho champion in the 500 free and 100 back. In fact, since Idaho’s first-ever sanctioned state meet in 2017, he is technically undefeated in Idaho 4A history in both of those events.

Stanford had a deep distance group last year led by Grant Shoults (4:12.0/14:52), with six men under 4:20 in the 500 and four under 15:05 in the mile. True Sweetser will be back for one last season with Stanford after an Olympic gap year, but the vast majority of the Stanford distance crew will have exhausted eligibility by the time Machado gets to campus. Freestylers like Jack Levant and Andrew Matejka will overlap with Machado, though.

Meanwhile, head coach Dan Schemmel heads into year two on The Farm with the #2-ranked incoming class in the nation, which is very sprint-heavy but includes Jon Affeld (1:36.0/4:21.0/9:08/15:13) and mid-distance specialists Rick Mihm (1:36.7/4:23.4), Preston Forst (1:37.1/4:22.4/9:18) and Luke Maurer (1:34.4/4:21.0).

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].

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