Men’s Recruit Ranks: Individual Scoring For All Classes Through 2023 NCAAs

It’s post-NCAA retrospective time, as we look back at recruit rankings through the lens of now-updated NCAA scoring data. We’ve focused in on the senior class (after four NCAA seasons) and the freshman class (after their first NCAA showings), and now it’s time to share all of our data for the four classes currently making up the NCAA field.

Further reading:

• Revisiting recruiting ranks: High school class of 2019
• Revisiting recruiting ranks: High school class of 2022

We’ll also include this year’s freshmen and seniors to have all the data in one post. You can find further analysis of those classes above.

Notes:

• The data included is only individual scoring at NCAAs. That’s not an exact measure of an athlete’s contribution to a program: many of these swimmers (and others not listed) were relay scorers at NCAAs, scored significant points at conference meets and provided great leadership and culture-building for their programs. This data isn’t a perfect analysis of the best recruits – it’s merely a quick look at the data we can compile.
• Some of these athletes haven’t had as many scoring seasons as others in their class. Some redshirted a season and have more remaining seasons. Some deferred their enrollment as freshmen. Some sat out a year with a transfer. Some turned pro early. Some will turn pro early. Some are hard to pigeonhole into a specific class, international athletes especially. We did our best to group athletes where they best fit. Again, this isn’t a hard-and-fast ranking of value – it’s just the best data we can compile.
• The ranks are from our recruit rankings, typically compiled when these athletes were high school juniors. We don’t include internationals in those rankings, as it’s difficult to figure out if and when internationals will join the NCAA and which class they should be grouped with before they appear in the NCAA. Do bear in mind that our rankings were done well over a year before any of these athletes appeared in NCAA competition, so if you do have a quibble with a specific rank, you may want to check how fast that athlete actually was when the ranking was done before you get too livid. Unranked recruits showing massive improvement curves are some of the best stories in the NCAA year-in and year-out, and one reason we rank recruits is so we can better see which athletes had great rises during their college careers.
• All that said, compiling these ranks is a lot of data entry and a lot of research. If we missed anyone, or misclassified anyone with the wrong class or with the wrong domestic/international tag, please let us know in the comments and we’ll update our data as soon as possible!

SENIORS (HIGH SCHOOL CLASS OF 2019, COLLEGE CLASS OF 2023)

• Read more on this class here.

Ranked Recruits

Unranked Recruits

International Recruits

Diving Recruits

JUNIORS (HIGH SCHOOL CLASS OF 2020, COLLEGE CLASS OF 2024)

• Top-ranked recruit Carson Foster has consistently produced high-end points for the Texas Longhorns while also being a valuable relay asset. Foster had the lowest point total of his NCAA career thus far in 2023, though that was still 42 points, 11th-most among swimmers at the meet. He is still looking for that elusive individual title, however.
• Cal’s Destin Lasco has emerged as the clear #1 in the class, putting up a massive 53-point total this season to help guide the Bears to a repeat national title. Lasco was on lifetime best form at NCAAs, repeating in the 200 back, setting a new American Record en route to a second-place finish in the 200 IM, and breaking 44 seconds for the first time to take third in the 100 back. He also put up scintillating relay legs of 18.5/40.9/1:29.5 in the freestyles.
• Texas’ David Johnston joined teammate Foster in surpassing the 100-point barrier this year (Lasco did so last season), placing second in the 500 free, fourth in the 1650 free and eighth in the 400 IM for a career-high 43 points.
• #3 Jake Magahey continues to produce for Georgia, though the Bulldogs were missing the other half of their 1-2 punch from this class after Luca Urlando missed the majority of the season due to injury. Magahey placed third in both the 500 and 1650 free—he’s now finished no lower than fourth in either event so far in his NCAA career.
• Also hitting the 100-point milestone this year was Cal’s Bjorn Seeliger, who leads all international recruits with 116 points through three seasons. The Swedish native has still yet to win an individual title, but has finished no lower than fourth in either the 50 or 100 free in three NCAAs appearances.
• Virginia Tech’s Youssef Ramadan broke through to win his first national title in the 100 fly after placing third last year, climbing to 96.5 points so far in his career.
• Another domestic recruit, Dare Rose, has scored in all three of his collegiate seasons, but really broke out as a junior for Cal this year with 22 points, highlighted by his fourth-place finish in the 200 fly.
• Bryden Hattie has emerged as a critical piece for Tennessee, as he followed up a pair of 16-point performances by scoring 30 this past season, placing second on platform and sixth on 3-meter.

Ranked Recruits

Unranked Recruits

International Recruits

Diving Recruits

SOPHOMORES (HIGH SCHOOL CLASS OF 2021, COLLEGE CLASS OF 2025)

• Leon Marchand‘s dominance has been well-documented all season, and he put an exclamation mark on an incredible campaign by scoring the maximum 60 points, setting new all-time records in the 200 breast, 200 IM and 400 IM. The Arizona State Frenchman has scored 117 out of a possible 120 individual points so far in his NCAA career.
• Another international recruit who had a phenomenal sophomore season, Tennessee’s Jordan Crooks rebounded from a slow start to win his first NCAA title in the 50 free, and scored a total of 47.5 points with fifth-place finishes in the 100 free and 100 fly.
• The #1 ranked U.S. recruit in this class, NC State’s Aiden Hayes, followed up a strong freshman season by winning the national title in the 200 fly and adding a sixth-place showing in the 100 fly for 33 points.
• 10th-ranked Luke Hobson really came into his own as a sophomore, kicking the NCAA Championships off with a sub-1:30 lead-off leg to propel Texas to a new American Record in the 800 free relay. Hobson then won the 200 and 500 free individually to score 40 points, bringing his total to 58.
• The top scorer through two NCAA Championship appearances in this class for domestic recruits comes from the unranked, as Cal’s Gabriel Jett, acknowledged in the “Best of the Rest” section two years ago, fired off a 46-point performance to bring his total to 59. Jett was second in the 200 free, third in the 100 fly and sixth in the 500 free.
• Indiana really made hay with this class in 2023, as divers Quentin Henninger and Carson Tyler combined for 67 points and second-ranked recruit Josh Matheny scored 24 in the pool after failing to put any on the board as a freshman. The Hoosiers also got four individual points from German recruit Rafael Miroslaw, who was a key cog on their relays.

Ranked Recruits

Unranked Recruits

International Recruits

Diving Recruits

FRESHMEN (HIGH SCHOOL CLASS OF 2022, COLLEGE CLASS OF 2026)

• Read more about this class here.

Ranked Recruits

Unranked Recruits

International Recruits

Diving Recruits

ARCHIVES: REVISITING RECRUIT RANKINGS