The Stanford men’s swimming and diving team has picked up their second major verbal commitment from the local Palo Alto-Stanford Aquatics club in Curtis Ogren, who made his proclamation today via his Twitter account.
Ogren, who we had as our #5 recruit in the country headed into the big summer championship meets, is primarily a breaststroker and IM’er, but he’s really one of the most versatile high school recruits we’ve seen since current Stanford swimmer David Nolan.
For starters, he’s one of the fastest high school breaststrokers in history (even if he wasn’t a part of that race in Northern California). He has been 53.90 in the 100 and 1;58.11 in the 200 breaststroke.
As good as he is in the breaststrokes, though, he’s also been 1:46.39 in the 200 back, a 1:47.86 in the 200 fly, and 45.6/1:39.7/4:22.2 in the 100-500 yard freestyles.
That means that at Stanford, his primary events will be the IM’s, where he has been 1:45.01 and 3:44.87 in 200 and 400 yards. The big Nolan-centric class of Stanford from a few years ago was heavy on IM’ers, and Ogren will slide well into that group.
That time in the 400 IM should make him an immediate NCAA scorer (a race that has had a lot of freshman success, relatively, over the last half-decade).
Stanford, who last year struggled with their breaststroke group, is now suddenly very deep there with the edition of 2013 freshmen Daniel Le, Charlie Wiser, and Max Williamson.
Ogren’s club teammate Andrew Liang committed last week; the separately-administered women’s team has also been successful this fall with PASA, getting a verbal from Ally Howe.
Awesome School, Awesome Team, Awesome Student Athlete = PERFECT FIT Congratulations to both Stanford and Curtis!
Proud to see so many PASA swimmers go to such great schools!
Though I must say so many of the PASA swimmers have stayed in California (Jasmine Tosky, Rachael Acker, Maddy Schaefer, Julia Ama, Adam and Ben Hinshaw, Brooke Bishop, Ally Howe, Andrew Liang, Curtis Ogren, etc.).
Well it looks like PASA swimmers get their choice of Stanford or Cal. And that is leaving out the dozen or PASA athletes that you didn’t list who competed at one of those two schools in the last few years.
Oh and Liam Egan just committed to Stanford as well
Congrats to Curtis. What would you guess would be his 3 taper events, he has a lot of options since he’s so versatile. Wouldn’t be surprised if Liam egan committed to stanford in the bear future as well. He was on a trip to stanford this weekend with Curtis.
Klorn8d – I’d bet he’ll end up in the 400 IM and 200 breast…and then probably the 200 IM on the first day as his event. Might say the 100 breast, if that wasn’t a conflict with the 400 IM (so maybe he’ll do 100 breast and 200 IM instead).
can’t see him drop the 400 IM, he’s too good at it. what about the 500 on the first day? 4:22 is very good if it is not his focus, stanford has a good distance tradition and it would definitely help his 400 IM.
Also true…may partially come down to where the best ‘opportunity’ lies for him. I guessed the 200 IM because, historically, Stanford has seemed to pushed toward that 200 IM more often than the 500. Lots of variables to consider, though.
200IM is a lot more natural of a training match. And IMO 1:45 is a lot better time out of a high schooler than 4:22.
I just don’t think you can take a guy that is elite in every stroke out of either of the IMs.
You’re probably right, it’s an option though
We’ve been spoiled by in order Thompson, Whitaker and Nolan taking that HS record to ridiculous places over the past half decade. It’s odd that 1:45 looks semi-normal. Which is not to say that 4:22 isn’t impressive, I just think if you go 500 free, 400 IM, 200 breast you are trying to train on three separate tracks. Not to mention, he may end up being a good option for breaststroke in the relays too, and then you’re getting even more spread out.
very good point, 200 IM would translate more to relay success than 500