Leon MacAlister from Castle Cove in New South Wales, Australia has announced his verbal commitment to Stanford University for 2019-20. There he will join Andrew Matejka, Neel Roy, Sean Slusiewicz, Shane Blinkman, and Will Tarvestad in the Cardinal class of 2023.
“I chose Stanford because it is unparalleled internationally in both academics and sport. It is a place where I believe I will flourish as a Student-athlete and achieve my goals in and out of the pool. I can’t wait for what’s to come. Go Card!”
MacAlister swims for Carlile Swimming Club in NSW. He broke the Australian NAG in the boys’ 15 100 back in 2016, going 56.59 at the Georgina Hope Foundation Australian Age Championships. Last summer he represented the Gold and Green at 2017 FINA Junior World Championships where he finished 11th in the semis of the 100 back (55.95), 14th in the semis of the 50 back (26.27 for a PB), and 16th in heats of the 200 back (2:03.84). He also led off Australia’s 400 medley relay.
MacAlister says that Stanford coaches told him that he is the 2nd Australian to join the Stanford men’s swim team.
MacAlister told SwimSwam, “Keen to do Australia proud in the Pac12 conference and the NCAAs!” Although he has a way to go in SCY before he qualifies for NCAAs, MacAlister would have scored in the C finals of the 100/200 free and 100/200 back at 2018 Pac-12 Championships.
Best LCM times (converted to SCY):
- 100 free – 50.69 (44.22)
- 200 free – 1:53.36 (1:39.24)
- 100 back – 55.77 (49.16)
- 200 back – 2:02.78 (1:48.45)
- 200 IM – 2:06.58 (1:51.15)
If you have a commitment to report, please send an email with a photo (landscape, or horizontal, looks best) and a quote to [email protected].
Leon has excellent underwater skill, so that he can convert into a good SCY swimmer with less problems I expect. He was even asked to swim a 50M BR, which he never swam for himself, for his school at the CAS, annual championship of 6 school league, and beat a very good breaststroke specialist from his rival school. He is also a great leader too. Good pick up for Stanford.
promising aussie.
what swimmer does in lcm stays in lcm. scy is like a forign language for swimmers that have never experienced yards…let him feel the yards first.
Those yard time conversions seem way too conservative.
agreed
I also concur. That 55.7 LCM back is more like a 48 low, maybe 47 high
Awesome!
Congrats Leon!
Conversions are way off on backstroke. More like 47.5 and 145.1.