Polish Olympian Kacper Majchrzak has committed to be a Tennessee Volunteer, making him the second huge sprint signing for the Tennessee class of 2013.
Majchrzak will join Australian Luke Percy to rocket Tennessee up the national recruiting class rankings with a very late-charging class.
“I wanted to join a great team with the possibility to compete every day and every workout to be the best that I can be,” Majchrzak said. “I know that at Tennessee, my dream can come true. I will have a great opportunity to join studying and swimming on a high level. I know that with this team I can prepare and win a gold medal at the Olympic Games as well.”
The sprinter has flat-start bests of 22.49 in the 50 free and 49.45 in the 100 free to go with a 56.99 in the 100 fly. In addition to an individual swim in the 50 free, Majchrzak swam the anchor leg of Poland’s 16th-place medley relay in London, where he split a 49.7.
The paperwork is expected to be completed this weekend to officially make Majchrzak a member of the Volunteers’ future.
He is a bit older than Percy – Majchrzak turns 21 in the fall – but both swimmers are expected to get four years of eligibility, which means bright things for the future of Tennessee. In recent memory, Percy’s 22.2 and Majchrzak’s 22.4 make these two of the best three 50 freestylers to ever enter the NCAA (considering long course times). The third would be Vlad Morozov, who was also a 22.4 on his way in to USC.
What really makes the signing exciting is that the Volunteers now enter the fall with five swimmers for four spots on their 400 free relay (Tristan Slater, Dam Rairden, Jacob Thulin, plus the two incoming freshmen) and a similar situation in the 200 free relay. That competitiveness could lead to some fireworks in practice, and is a luxury that the Volunteers haven’t seen much of the last few years.
Add to these two sprinters a pair of top distance recruits in Evan Pinon and David Heron, and the Volunteers have put together a small, but very impressive, incoming freshman class.
Will y’all be ranking recruiting classes as a whole? I’m curious to see where Kredich has Tenn stacking up on the recruiting front.
Will – it’s in the cards. I think we’re getting close to the end of the shakeout of the last few international recruits, will try and put something together once I get some free time.
I think the key phrase in this statement Braden was “their compliance department “Thinks”….
As with most international kids… I will believe he gets 4 years when I see it…
It will be fun to see how Kacper does in the NCAA this coming season.
In general I believe it is unfair to the domestic swimmers in recruiting older foreign swimmers. I’ll make an exception for swimmers from Greece but only if they have one hades of a great javelin throw!
Gotcha, is it because its over a year the SEC/NCAA requires 48 credit hours?
If he was only there one year, wouldn’t he only be required to have 24 hours completed to transfer in for eligibility?
That’s why I was assuming he was there 2 years since it was mentioned that he needed 48 cr. hours to transfer in.
Good for him for getting on it academically!
Swimi75 – it’s actually because he was coming from a “Junior College”. That always requires 48 semester hours in the SEC, regardless of when the clock started ticking.
LSU has a document that discusses all transfer rules…as far as I can tell, this applies to Tennessee (SEC) swimming as well. http://www.lsusports.net/src/data/lsu/assets/docs/ad/policymanual/pdf/502C.pdf
In most cases in the US, this involved 4×12 semesters at a Junior College, but it doesn’t have to. Most American students who start at JuCo aren’t academically prepared to burn through 48 hours in a year.
@Bk, if his clock started once he attended Junior college in POL, he transfers in 48 credit hours (2 years), then he has 3 years as I’m reading the explainations.
What am I missing?
simi75 – he’s getting in 48 credit hours over one year and a summer, or something along those lines, as compared to the four semesters at the bare-minimum 12 hours that most athletes in the states would do.
Another SEC program emphasizing international over USA Swimming
Dom served in the Austrian military. It’s the same rule used by everyone else. He stayed in the military for a considerable period. That’s the reason for his advanced age.
Just imagine what the program will be if they pick up Caeleb Dressel!
Does Tennessee lead or have a shot for Dressel?
Will – Tennessee seems to have the hot hand right now…would guess that with the group they have and Kredich’s reputation already with his women’s program, the next step is to start going after top American recruits.