Dave Salo and USC are on a roll this recruiting season. Not only have they landed a lot of top recruits, but they’ve also grabbed a lot of great transfers – 4 between the men and women combined.
Over the weekend, the USC men added one of each to their squad.
The freshman recruit comes in the form of Canadian Junior National Teamer Jeffrey Swanston, the younger brother of Stanford All-American Matthew Swanston and son of coach Alan Swanston of the Newmarket Stingrays, which has turned out a number of Division 1 swimmers.
He’s got a lot of international experience already, having already participated in the Junior Pan Pac Championships in 2010 and the FINA Youth World Championships in 2011. Like his older brother, Jeffrey is a great backstroker, with long course bests of 56.8 and 2:02.2.
In yards, that puts him in the range of a 47-high in the 100 and 1:43-high in the 200. His SCM conversions, which are generally more accurate, put him closer to a 49 in the 100 and a 1:45.5 in the 200. Regardless of which conversion you hold to, he comes out as one of the top backstrokers in the class, and should be an NCAA qualifier as a freshman.
He’s also a solid middle-distance freestyler, with a best of 1:56.3 in the 200. But the backstroke will be the key. This means that in the fall of 2013, with Swanston having a year of swimming under his built, USC can put him or Alex Lendrum on the backstroke leg, 2011 freshman Sergio Lujan Rivera on breaststroke, former Auburn All-American transfer Tony Cox on the fly leg, and Vlad Morozov on the free. There’s some development that needs to go on between now and then, but all of a sudden a USC medley emerges that are National Championship contenders.
The other newest Trojan is Army transfer Brock Redondo. He’s a former Mission Viejo Nadadore, and another swimming sibling – his younger brother is Minnesota commit Logan Redondo.
Brock was not as highly regarded as his younger brother coming out of high school, but he was still a very good distance freestyler. He has career-bests of 4:26.5/15:29.6, but those times were both done when he was a junior in high school. In his first year at West Point, where the focus is often split with a higher calling, he only went a best-time in one event, the 400 IM, in 3:56.18.
Still, that didn’t stop him from making a huge impact on the Army program. He was the team’s best swimmer at the ECAC Championships (which is sort of an extra-conference, but below NCAA, Championship meet), and ended the year as the School Record holder in that 400 IM, and #2 All-Time in both the 500 and 1650 freestyles.
He’ll join another USC transfer, Dakota Hodgson, and sophomores Nick Johnson and Cary Wright to reform the nucleus of a totally-revamped and very young distance freestyle group.
lotta socal boys returning home i guess