Sprinter Michael Forbes of Rose Bowl Aquatics has verbally committed to the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) in the Pac 12 this week. He’s the best sprint recruit that the Gauchos have picked up since current junior Wade Allen came out in the class of 2011.
Forbes has yards bests of 20.74/45.55 in the 50 and 100 yard freestyles, which made him the CIF South Section champion as a junior in May of 2013.
Photo Courtesy: Jane Forbes
Forbes swims at the same Los Osos High School that has senior Kyle Coan committed to Cal this year as well, and the two were both part of the section champion (and record breaking) 200 and 400 free relays last year as well.
If he develops as well as Allen did for Gregg Wilson’s squad, he has a bright future. Allen was an individual NCAA qualifier as a sophomore, and Forbes’ times coming out of his junior year are actually a little better than Allen’s were. UCSB finished 7th out of 8 teams at the Pac 12 Championships last year; Forbes could step on to both of the sprint relays as a freshman too. The team also has a freshman this year, Jon Norman, who comes in with a 21.1 and 44.9 in the 50 and 100 yard freestyles.
Great job team!
I heard Cal Poly has a freshman that went 20.3 next year. It would be fun to see them and UCSB close the gap on the other schools but there is still a long way to go.
I am a Cal Poly alum…though not swim team member. I miss the old league CP and UCSB swam in (with Irvine, Pacific, Davis, etc). Neither CP or UCSB have a lot of hope of moving out of those 7th and 8th place positions. I suppose talent pool might gradually grow as solid swimmers looking for Pac12 level competition look to the smaller schools.
And just to be clear…both Poly and SB have great swimmers. Its just a testement to the extreme level of depth a school has to have to be a D1 contender.
It’s a good get but still there is little hope for UCSB in the PAC 12 with their dreadful funding of swimming scholarships. The NCAA allows 9.9 total per squad. UCSB funds only 3 to 4. They are losing ground on Utah and ASU, who themselves have very little hope on breaking the hold of the Big 4 – Cal, Stanford, USC, Zona. Just the facts – nothing personal.