World's Top Recruit David Nolan Picks Stanford

For months, there has been a ton of speculation about where David Nolan, who is probably one of the top 5 high school swimmers in the last decade, would be swimming collegiately. Would he follow his sister Katie to join a fast-rising North Carolina program? Would he go to one of the big boys like Texas? Would he possibly join Kyle Whitaker, whose National 200 IM record he’s broken once (and will probably break again this season) in Ann Arbor? Or maybe stay closer to home and join Virginia, who will have  alot of scholarship money to pass out after this season.

His decision has been made, and Nolan will be heading to Palo Alto to swim for the Stanford Cardinal, PennLive.com is reporting.

Before his senior season in high school, the Hershey, Pennsylvania star took a big leap onto the national scene by finaling in the 200 IM at the USA-Swimming Long Course Nationals, where he went toe-to-toe with the likes of Ryan Lochte and Michael Phelps. Also during his junior season, in addition to breaking the National High School record in the 200 IM, Nolan made a serious run at the 100 free record: a mark that he has a very good chance of breaking this year.

As a point of reference for how good Nolan is, his 1:43.43 National Record would have tied Florida’s Omar Pinzon for fourth at NCAA’s last year. He beat defending 200 IM NCAA Champ Austin Surhoff at LC Nationals, and placed only behind NCAA Swimmer of the Year Conor Dwyer in terms of returning college swimmers. Nolan has also gone a 47.9 100 back, a 1:36.4 200 free, 48.8 100 fly, and 55.4 100 breaststroke. It’s little wonder that he was able to break a National Record in the IM that 3 years ago was roughly 3 seconds faster than his 1:43.4.

What’s even more terrifying for the rest of the nation is that he still has another season of high school to mature and become bigger, stronger, and undoubtedly faster, before even thinking about an NCAA meet. These are the kind of performances that are seen with some frequency in women’s swimming, where physical maturity comes at a much younger age, but rarely, if ever, on the men’s side.

Academics obviously played a huge role for Nolan, as he will be pursuing an ambitious management science and engineering degree. During the recruiting process, Nolan took official visits to Texas, Stanford, Virginia, and Florida, with his final decision coming down to Stanford and Texas.

Let me go ahead and spoil next season’s top overall recruiting class rankings by giving the award to Stanford already. Thus far, they’ve already grabbed 4 out of the top 31 recruits in the nation, including number 9 Drew Cosgarea, Robert Hommel, and Jonathan Edwards. This is the second major recruiting battle the Cardinal have won against Texas this season, as many expected that Edwards, who lives in Houston, was a Texas shoe-in. This class now has four swimmers 1:50 or better in the 200 IM, two 4:28 500’s, and three 1:37’s or better in the 200 free. And all of those times are from the swimmers’ JUNIOR SEASONS. I just can’t get over how unreal this group is going to be for Stanford.