As July 1 has descended upon us, college coaches all across the nation are on their phones, communicating with the high school class of 2015 in hopes they can persuade them to be a part of their programs in the near future.
At collegeswimming.com, we have ranked the top 25 best recruiting classes from this past year by using the borda-count method. Who says you don't use math in everyday life? The way we did it is simple. We took the top 250 recruits on our database and matched them with their school. If you are in the top 50, you are considered a five star recruit. If you are ranked 51-100, you are a four star recruit, etc. We then determined who had the better class by taking the number of guys in each column and multiplying the sum by their star. (for example, if a school had two x five star recruits, then it would be simply two times five.) This was done in hopes of creating an accurate ranking system.
Now, these rankings really don't mean anything, because anything can happen to these athletes over the next four years. It doesn't matter how good you were in high school, you have to prove yourself in college. Athletes can get homesick, get injured, party too much, or may have already maxed out their potential in high school. Ultimately, these rankings don't mean anything. The athletes need to prove it themselves. But for now, enjoy this list, and look out for these guys and gals in the future.
6. NC State 23
*****Colin Ellington- Holly Springs, North Carolina
*****Hennessy Stuart- Denver, Colorado
*****Ryan Held- Springfield, Illinois
*****Anton Ipsen- Birkerød, Denmark
***Benjamin Cono- Smithtown, New York
The Wolfpack from North Carolina State had their best year in program history this past season. They won four relays at ACC's in finishing second in the team race and added on an impressive 13th-th place showing at the NCAA meet. They are graduating three All-Americans in Barrett Miesfeld, Jonathan Boffa, and Ian Bishop but are gaining a huge and talented freshman class. Colin Ellington is the top-ranked recruit out of the state of North Carolinawho should add to the sprint dominance in Raleigh. Hennessy Stuart hails from Denver and swims backstroke and IM. Ryan Held is a sprinter from Illinois who could also add to the sprint domination for the Wolfpack. Anton Ipsen is an international guy from Denmark where he will join fellow Dane Andreas Schiellerup on the team. Ipsen is a distance swimmer that will train alongside up-and-comers Austin Snyder and Adam Linker. Benjamin Cono hails from New York and is a pretty good breaststroker that will take over for departing senior Ian Bishop. Head coach Braden Holloway seems to be doing something right down in Raleigh as his team is on the rise to national prominence. Be on the lookout for the Wolfpack this upcoming season.
7. Georgia 22
*****Gunnar Bentz- Atlanta, Georgia
*****Jay Litherland- Alpharetta, Georgia
*****Kevin Litherland- Alpharetta, Georgia
****Mick Litherland- Alpharetta, Georgia
***Powell Brooks- Norcross, Georgia
Jack Bauerle managed to stay in-state with this class but he managed to get some pretty good names. One name that he managed to get was Litherland -- all three of them. One of my favorite Litherland moments was at the 2013 Juniors when Mick Litherland won the C-Final in the 400 IM. Kevin Litherland followed it up with a win in the B-Final. I then turned to my friend and said (this was before I figured out there were three of them) "wouldn't it be funny if there was a third one and he won this heat?" And funny story, Jay Litherland was the top seed (another UGA signee Gunnar Bentz ended up beating him in the 'A' final however). The Litherland triplets are all very accomplished swimmers from Dynamo Swim Club. Kevin and Jay were national junior team members and all three are very versatile across all strokes. Gunnar Bentz also hails from Dynamo Swim Club and won three events at the 2013 Junior Nationals last summer as well as winning both IMs at the 2013 World Juniors. He was also the swimmer of the meet at Junior Nationals last summer. Powell Brooks will come to Athens from SwimAtlanta. He is a middle-distance freestyler and butterflyer. The Georgia men finished fifth at NCAAs this year, a landmark placing for the program. They are losing four scorers from their SEC team including Olympian Andrew Gemmell, as well as All-Americans Will Freeman and Doug Reynolds. Despite the losses, Georgia could finally break into the top four at NCAAs and begin to rival the success thir women's program has had for much of the last two decades.
8. Harvard 22
*****Edward Kim- Sammamish, Washington
*****Shane McNamara- Tappan, New York
****Steven Tan- Aurora, Illinois
****Jack Boyd- Buffalo, New York
***Koya Osada- Durham, North Carolina
*William Haeffner- Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Head coach Kevin Tyrell is coming off a win in the 2014 Ivy League Championships and, has answered a strong recruiting season by Princeton with an impressive one of their own. First off there is Edward Kim from Washington who can swim pretty much anything freestyle or backstroke and score and do well. Then there is Shane McNamara from New York who leans more toward the longer events in the 400 IM and 200 breast. Steven Tan is another versatile swimmer who swims a fast 100 fly, back, and free. Jack Boyd comes from Buffalo, New York, and has range from the 50 to the 500 free. He will provide some impressive relay depth for the Crimson. Koya Osada comes from Duke Aquatics in Durham. Osada can sprint all four 100's pretty well and combine them together to have a fast 400 IM. William Haeffner will join Harvard from the Pine Crest School. He is a middle-distance and distance freestyler who will be helped by open water Olympian Alex Meyer. We just touched on how Princeton was looking to close the gap on Harvard with their recruiting class yet Harvard responded with an impressive class of their own. We also mentioned Yale's impressive class earlier. If these swimmers continue to improve in their respective programs, the HYP meet will be even more fun one to watch and the Ivy League will one to keep even more of an eye on than usual. Harvard is slowly but surely starting to crawl into the top 20 at the NCAAs and become one of the nation's best swim programs. With this class, expect Harvard to keep on improving.
9. Texas 20
*****Jonathan Roberts- Southlake, Texas
*****Joseph Schooling- Jacksonville, Florida
*****Brett Ringgold- Keller, Texas
***Austin Temple- Virginia Beach, Virginia
**Jared Butler- Rockwall, Texas
After a surprising runner-up finish at this year's NCAAs, Eddie Reese has served notice that his young squad is ready to compete for all the marbles for the near future. He also managed to sign another impressive recruiting class. Jonathan Roberts comes from the North Texas Nadadores. He swam at the 2013 World Juniors in the 1500 and also won the 2013 Junior Nationals in that same event. He has impressive times in the 400 IM and 500 free. Joseph Schooling comes from the Bolles School where he was an impressive butterflyer and sprint freestyler. Schooling swam in the 2012 Olympics for Singapore in the 200 butterfly. Brett Ringgold also swam for the North Texas Nadadores where he was an impressive sprinter. Austin Temple is one of the nation's top rising breaststrokers as he has flown under the radar this past year in those events. Jared Butler is a backstroker from Rockwall who will provide more depth at that stroke for the Longhorns. Texas turned some heads this past March when they gave Cal a good run for the championship but couldn't quite finish on the final day. Reese is returning a strong team and is also gaining a top notch recruiting class that will make them a force to be reckoned with at the 2015 NCAA's.
10. USC 20
*****Pawel Furtek- Wroclaw, Poland
****Ralf Tribunstov- Rakvere, Estonia
****James Clausen- San Diego, California
****Jon Knox- Sebastopol, California
***Jason O'Brien- San Diego, California
A year after signing one of the most talented freshmen classes ever, Dave Salo has managed to ink another impressive one in 2014. Pawel Furtek is an extremely gifted distance freestyler from Poland. He won the bronze medal in the 1500 free at the 2013 world junior meet. He also swims a fast 400 and 800 LCM freestyle that could translate into some fast times at Pac-12's and maybe NCAA's. Ralf Tribunstov hails from Estonia and is the national record holder in the 100 back and 100 fly. He is internationally experienced and that should help him at the national level. James Clausen hails from North Coast Aquatics in San Diego. He is a fast distance freestyler who also is versatile in the 400 IM. His teammate, Jason O'Brien is also a fast distance swimmer who can make some noise at the Pac-12 meet with his times. Jon Knox swims the 200 free and 100 back that can add relay depth for the Men of Troy. With three All-Americans graduating in Chase Bloch, Dmitri Colupaev, Cristian Quintero, coach David Salo will have to rely on his young guns to lead the Trojans in the pool. With this freshman class, Salo isn't hurting his chances at seeing his team rise to the top of the Pac-12 in the next few years.
