With about 6-weeks to go before the November National Signing Day, Cal women’s coach Teri McKeever isn’t leaving much suspense for the last minute. She picked up another early verbal commitment from a top-10 recruit, this time it was #8 Kelly Naze out of Colorado, marking her 4th verbal commitment in the class of 2012.
Naze will fill a very important spot for this Cal roster, as she is a phenomenal breaststroker. After the graduation of current Cal junior Caitlin Leverenz, Cal won’t be left with a ton of breaststroke depth (and even this season, with Leverenz focusing on the 200 and the IM’s, it leaves only freshman Yvette Kong to hold down the 100).
But the young swimmer out of Colorado will bring to Berkeley bests of 1:01.3/2:13.10 in the two breaststroke races, with a year left to go to improve those times.
She’s extremely versatile, and also goes a 53.7 in the 100 fly and a 50.1 in the 100 free, either of which could be killer events for her as a freshman. Her weak stroke, if she has one, is the backstroke, which coach McKeever – the hottest women’s backstroke coach in the country right now – should be able to shortly rectify and turn Naze into an even better IM’er (she’s already got bests of 2:00.1 and 4:13.7). It’s a lofty standard for anyone to develop into, but Naze is very similar to the afore-mentioned Leverenz, only maybe as a slightly better butterflier and a better sprint breaststroker than distance.
Either way, she’s another well-fit piece to a potential Cal dynasty over the next four years or so. Looking at scholarship numbers, this is now four big-time recruits that they have brought in for next year. That’s offset by the graduations of Liv Jensen, Sara Isakovic, Colleen Fotsch, and some combination of NCAA qualifiers Shelley Harper and Katherine Raatz. The assumption is that that combination is a pretty even scholarship swap, and that they will be done in terms of the ultra-elite, top-10 recruits, so don’t be surprised of #1 Bonnie Brandon (who’s expected to make a decision this week) and #2 Jasmine Tosky go elsewhere. Then again, I could be very wrong, and McKeever’s program could be such a draw at this point that she’s getting these swimmers for lower offers than other schools would.
Now we said Kelly Naze is from Colorado. Specifically, she used to swim for the Colorado Stars program where none-other than World Champion Missy Franklin trains (though Naze has since started training with the Denver University Hilltoppers). she was the breaststroker on the incredible relay that also included Caroline Piehl (who is a freshman at Cal this year) and Jordan Mattern (who’s beginning at Georgia). Those are the two schools that Franklin has named as front-runners for her services beginning in the fall of 2013, which I think is no coincidence.
Now, though, Cal has two parts of that medley relay to Georgia’s one. Consider that Cal has only one swimmer who will be headed out as Franklin is coming in, and that’s the big one in Leverenz, meaning that they will have one bullet to use on next year’s recruiting class. I’m sure that even she hasn’t made her decision yet, but the pull will be very strong to Berkeley.
The other recruits for Cal in the class are #3 Liz Pelton, #4 Lauren Driscoll, and #5 Rachel Bootsma.
What about Rachael Acker, #19 on College Swimming? She hasn’t updated her times and she’s a relative newcomer to the sport, having only started seriously swimming 2 years ago. Could be somebody to watch…
don’t think they can beat uga 800 free relay next year, assuming Schmitt returns, which i definitely think she will.
They should have 4x stroke relays. We could see what the top stroke dynasties are.
I have to agree with Braden that bootsma will most likely be doing fly on the medleys, with tran, Roth and pelton all there it would just be the obvious choice.
But think of the relays they could make already with just this class…pelton-Naze-bootsma-Driscoll, that’s a deadly medley right there. Cals relays will just be flat out incredible with this class. Think of the 800(breed-kong-pelton-driscoll) that’s an NCAA champion right there!! Cal has so much depth I wouldn’t be surprised if they swept all the relays in the future!!
With a 50.5 100 back as a Junior, i really don’t thing Bootsma gets pressed into fly duty. Im assuming she could be leading off both medleys, especially since she’s a pretty good 50 Back. She swam that at finals at pan pacs.
At the same time, Cal is gong to have five or six swimmers who go 50-point 100 backs in the not-too-distant future. Somebody’s gotta swim a different event, at least for a few years, and Bootsma is an outstanding butterflier as well.
I believe that Bonnie will either end up at Florida or Arizona. Those would be my best guesses. Tosky most likely will go to Stanford, which is where I also believe in the end that Missy will also end up after next year.
I always thought fly was Naze’s best event. She has been 58sec in the long course 100 fly.
Fly is her best event in long course, though short course her fly and breaststroke she’s about even between the two. At Cal, in the short term she’ll be needed more as a breaststroker (mostly because some of those backstrokers, like Bootsma, will probably be pressed into butterfly duty). If I had to take a stab, her NCAA events as a freshman will be 200 IM, 100 breast, 200 breast (she’s swim 100 fly and 100 breast, but they’re quite close together on the 2nd day).
Judging by Cal’s success so far, it’s hard to see them getting Bonnie Brandon, particularly given that Georgia seems like a better fit for her. As for Tosky, it seems that academics will play a bigger role in her college options than the other girls. Also, it might be more accurate to refer to Tosky and Pelton as No. 1 ranked swimmers in their class because they’re technically tied with the same score on collegeswimming. Arguably, Pelton may have the most impact at the college level given her top times (1:49.1 200 back, 48 mid 100 free, 1:44 200 free, etc) and what has probably been an emphasis on long course.