Try this link. If needed scroll down on the filter to go to University of California Berkeley. You can also change the incoming year.

https://www.swimcloud.com/recruiting/commitments/?team_id=110

Thanks, PalyBear. Cal also has a fifth recruit. However, both Texas & Stanford have double the highly ranked recruits that Cal does. HC Dave Durden will have to continue to do it with mirrors. Last year the Bears won the Pac 12 & the NCAA with depth and great strategy by the coaching staff. GO BEARS!

Cal got a good one a 5th year transfer student from Michigan, Patrick Callan. He was part of the USA 4x200 relay team at the 2020 Olympic that took 4th in the finals.

https://swimswam.com/us-tokyo-olympian-patrick-callan-transferring-to-cal-for-fifth-year/

Schroeder71 said:

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Thanks, PalyBear. Cal also has a fifth recruit. However, both Texas & Stanford have double the highly ranked recruits that Cal does. HC Dave Durden will have to continue to do it with mirrors. Last year the Bears won the Pac 12 & the NCAA with depth and great strategy by the coaching staff. GO BEARS!

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Since 2019 Durden has brought in 15 swimmers rented in the top 50 or lower, including 3-4 who were ranked #1. (Destin Lasco, Zach Tan). Plus transfers who won NCAA events and Olympic Medals. What does doing it with mirrors mean in the face of such great recruiting success?

ccajon2-"doing it with mirrors" means that it appears on paper that the opposition has superior times and talent. Cal has always had a knack for success on its relays and the depth in several events minimizes the point differential from the other team's superstars. If you feel Cal's recruiting is superior in present day, then I feel that we will have to agree to disagree. GO BEARS!

No problem. NC states haul including 4 of the top 12 is daunting, as is the TAM 60 point NCAA swimmer transferring to Tex. I think our coaching is better. We'll see.

SwimSwam's Rankings for Men's Recruiting Classes 2016- 2021

As of today, SS has not rated the 2022 class, but since Cal has not signed any top 20 recruit it is likely they will drop out of a top top 15 class. Zachary Tan who was previously ranked as the # 1 recruit in the class has been dropped to "honorable mention" by SS and it has been stated on our boards that he is currently serving his military requirement in Singapore, and his status for this year's class is unknown to me.

In addition to Tan, five other swimmers appear to be headed to Berkeley this fall, including Patrick Callan a 5th year transfer from Michigan, who follows the path taken last year by Will Roberts. Callan should compete for a spot on our 800 free relay, and will be our fastest swimmer in the 500 free. His PB of 4:11.79 could score points at this year's NCAAs. The other recruits include two breaststrokers, Hank Rivers and Luca Gissendaner, and a pretty decent distance freestyler in Matthew Chai, but none of them project as NCAA scorers in their first year.

The verbals from the class of 2023 look like a return to form for the Bears. The commits, who are entering their high school senior year next fall, include Keaton Jones, a rising backstroke star, and sprinter Roman Jones.


2016
Cal #1 (Sendyk, Quah, M. Jensen, Josa)
Mich. #2
Stanford #3
Florida #4

2017
Cal #1 (Perhaps the best Cal class ever with Hoffer, Julian, Carr, Grieshop and B. Mefford)
Texas #2
Florida #3
Stanford #4

2018
Texas #1
Florida #2
Stanford #3
Indiana #4
Cal # 8 (Whitley)

2019
Texas #1
NC State #2
UVA #3
Cal #4 (Louser, and Hugo via transfer)

2020
Texas #1
Stanford #2
NC State #3
Cal #4 (Durden believes this class with Lasco, Seeliger, Rose, Hawk, Frazier was equal to Texas, and this was before Zach Yeadon grad transferred in.

2021
NC State #1
Texas #2
Cal #3 (Alexy, Jett, Hanson and Liam Bell from Alabama, four impact recruits. )
Indiana #4

IMHO, Durden has recruited at a very high level over the past 6 entering classes with top domestic recruits, a few key transfers and high impact international athletes. Over the same period Texas, Stanford, NC State and Florida have recruited extremely well, with Indiana, Georgia and Michigan in the next group. So, Durden is clearly not enjoying success "doing it with mirrors", but it has required a bit of hard work, strategy and luck to overcome Texas' major advantage from its core of aqua-gymnasts, otherwise known as divers.

Hey, if swan says that Cal (Durden) have recruited at the elite level of Texas, then I accept his opinion as being more accurate than mine. I am not an expert concerning swimming. Swan is. I only view myself as a novice fan of sports that I did not participate in on a competitive level.

I definitely have the feeling that the women's program under McKeever has dropped off in its level of recruiting. She had that fab four recruit class several years back plus she landed famed Olympian Missy Franklin for two (I think) seasons. Since then, Izzy Ivey has been the top swimmer since she arrived. Isabelle Stadden was rated the #3 swimmer in her class two years ago. She has been a solid performer. Last season, however, McKeever brought in a huge class of fourteen but without the big names. Leah Polonsky from Israel looks like she may become a star and several others show considerable promise to keep the Bear's program competitive. I was probably mixing my thoughts on both programs together to a degree. I apologise if anyone is upset with my opinion as an avid fan. GO BEARS!

Re: the TAMU transfer, assuming that the latter part of the post referred to Shaine Casas, who formerly announced leaving A&M to transfer (as an undergrad) to Texas. Casas has gone pro already and is not competing for either college team.

HBear said:

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Re: the TAMU transfer, assuming that the latter part of the post referred to Shaine Casas, who formerly announced leaving A&M to transfer (as an undergrad) to Texas. Casas has gone pro already and is not competing for either

college team.

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Great! Anybody who scores 6o pts. In the championships deserves a pro career. Too bad Shane couldn't find a certificate degree to do one undergrad year @ Cal.

OBear073akaSMFan said:

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Cal got a good one a 5th year transfer student from Michigan, Patrick Callan. He was part of the USA 4x200 relay team at the 2020 Olympic that took 4th in the finals.

https://swimswam.com/us-tokyo-olympian-patrick-callan-transferring-to-cal-for-fifth-year/

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Patrick's reason for coming to Cal. Looks like he was burnt out at Mich and needed a change:

Matthew Elliott: I'm beyond excited to announce that I will be continuing my swimming and school career at the University of California Berkeley beginning in the fall of 2024

Welcome! Matthew is a 2023 recruit from the Santa Cruz area (Quicksilver Swimming) who will take a gap year before starting with the Bears.

Best times from collegeswimming.com: 19.89/44.39 sprint free and 48.05 100 fly.

2 5th years announced as of late:

-Chris Jhong will be returning for his 5th season with the team as 2x NCAA qualifier, All-American in the 400 IM
-Luke Rodarte will join the team for his 5th year, coming from Cal Lutheran. NCAA D3 Champion in the 100 breast (52.71) with a 1:56.69 to win the consol 200 breast heat as well.

Humberto Najera:

Quote:

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I'm super excited to announce my verbal commitment to swim and study at the University of California-Berkeley.

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https://www.swimcloud.com/swimmer/1337892/

It looks like Humberto Najera is really a top swimmer nationally. Swimswam had him ranked as the #18 best swimmer in his class. However, if they were to re-rank him based on more recent times, he might easily break into the top 10.

mighty bears said:

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It looks like Humberto Najera is really a top swimmer nationally. Swimswam had him ranked as the #18 best swimmer in his class. However, if they were to re-rank him based on more recent times, he might easily break into the top 10.

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I love your enthusiasm and I also appreciate any good news coming from Cal sports in the midst of the Pac 12 implosion and the McKeever debacle.

Bert Najera was originally tabbed as the # 18th recruit by SwimSwam but in their recent update, Najera was relegated to Honorable Mention. Bert still has the best 400 IM time in the class at 3:47.33, which makes him our best frosh recruit in this event since NCAA scorer Jason Louser in 2019. His 400 IM time suggests he can find success in the 200 IM or 200 back or fly.

Thanks Swan. I will certainly defer to you. I didn't realize Swimswam had already done their re-ranking. The reason I estimated a top10 placement was the 1:44.68 200 Y back and the 200 M fly time of 2:02.27 (that converted to 1:46.73). No matter what, Bert really seems to have quite a range of events in which he might contribute.

swimmer19 said:

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2 5th years announced as of late:

-Chris Jhong will be returning for his 5th season with the team as 2x NCAA qualifier, All-American in the 400 IM
-Luke Rodarte will join the team for his 5th year, coming from Cal Lutheran. NCAA D3 Champion in the 100 breast (52.71) with a 1:56.69 to win the consol 200 breast heat as well.

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Adding on to the 5th year announcements from Callan, Jhong and Rodarte:

-Reece made it official he's coming back this season per IG yesterday.
-Bora Unalmis joins the team as a grad transfer from Michigan; has already been training with the team and represented Cal at Nationals a couple weeks back. A welcome addition to the distance group who was on Michigan's 800 FR at NCAAs and multi-time conference scorer in the Big Ten

swimmer19 said:

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swimmer19 said:

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2 5th years announced as of late:

-Chris Jhong will be returning for his 5th season with the team as 2x NCAA qualifier, All-American in the 400 IM
-Luke Rodarte will join the team for his 5th year, coming from Cal Lutheran. NCAA D3 Champion in the 100 breast (52.71) with a 1:56.69 to win the consol 200 breast heat as well.

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Adding on to the 5th year announcements from Callan, Jhong and Rodarte:

-Reece made it official he's coming back this season per IG yesterday.
-Bora Unalmis joins the team as a grad transfer from Michigan; has already been training with the team and represented Cal at Nationals a couple weeks back. A welcome addition to the distance group who was on Michigan's 800 FR at NCAAs and multi-time conference scorer in the Big Ten

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Thanks for the updates. Any idea with the coaching situation with the women's team? With Stadden returning hoping others might change their mind too but perhaps they are waiting for additional changes to be made to management and not just Teri.

I never understood how a few folks on this board conflated the women's problems to effect the men's program. I would think there would be zero effect on the men's side or less than zero.
Go Bears!

Thanks for all the updates. Sounds to me like incoming transfers are an important part of the overall recruiting game now. Anyone know of latest stats on the changing recruiting environment out there...

coachdeke said:

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I never understood how a few folks on this board conflated the women's problems to effect the men's program. I would think there would be zero effect on the men's side or less than zero.
Go Bears!

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I would imagine there's an effect to some degree.

The programs are combined for the summer as Cal Aquatics. Prior to this mess the programs were separate, and allowed for a smaller coach:swimmer ratio compared to that of a combined program. With no word on what this season looks like I would assume the program is still combined to some degree. Some swimmers may have chose Cal because of the split programs and would want to transfer out to a program that can continue to provide them with more individualized attention. One tangential example is Gretchen Walsh- everyone thought she was a surefire Cal verbal, but followed her sister to UVA and said in an interview she was looking for a combined program.

Probably other factors now that the administration has been exposed too but that's the only significant one I can think of

HUGO GONZALEZ WON'T REJOIN CAL FOR FALL SEMESTER; UNSURE ABOUT SPRING

NCAA Champion Hugo Gonzalez won't be competing for the Cal Golden Bears at least not when they kick off the season in San Luis Obispo on September 30.

The 23-year old Spaniard told SwimSwam on Sunday that he is staying home in Spain for the fall semester and "still considering the spring option."