Arizona Men Land Three More Verbals

Just as we were declaring that Eric Hansen and the Arizona men had some work to do in their recruiting class of 2012, we received word that much more in the way of top recruits was already on the way.

In addition to the verbal received from Kelly Moodie, the Wildcats have received verbal commitments from three others in the class of 2012: Andrew Porter, Michael Nunan, and Andrew Sovero.

Porter is a fantastic IM’er who will step into the void left by the graduating Austen Thompson. The Northern California native (out of Monte Vista Christian) has bests of 1:47.5 and 3:53.5 in the two IM races. That 200 IM ranks him 2nd in the class, only .05 behind Cal commit Jacob Pebley.

He’s what I like to refer to as a “true IM’er”. He has no real specialty stroke that is a hammer in his IM’s – his only other races with event a Juniors cut is a 9:24 in the 1000, and a 50.1 for Winter Juniors in the 100 fly. Instead, he uses solid consistency across the four strokes to get the job done to the tune of two Olympic Trials cuts.

Michael Nunan out of the Santa Clara Swim Club is another swimmers with a very specialized event range. His top-two for the Wildcats will be the 200 and 500 free, where he’s been 1;38.2 and 4:24.6. That 500 time is top-10 in the class. He very well could be the final piece of the puzzle in 2013 for a strong Arizona 800 free relay, as we discussed earlier today upon Moodie’s commitment, though that pair of freshman would have to come quickly up to speed.

For a 3rd event, I see it as a more-likely fit for him to go up (16:36 in the mile) than down (47.0 in the 100 free). If the new coaching staff, however, has a similar philosophy to the old one, they may choose to just leave him to focus on his specialties. Last year, for example, freshman Matt Barber (who was much more well-rounded than Nunan is) stuck to only the 200 and 500 at NCAA’s.

The 3rd-recruit, Andrew Sovero, is once again very much a specialist. He comes in as a very good, though very young, breaststroker, with yards bests of 57.00 and 2:03.4. He showed some big improvements over the summer in long course, however, so don’t be surprised if his times are approaching on 55/2:01 by the time he graduates high school.