Thanks, swan.

Matthew Elliott (Quicksilver/Santa Cruz) will join Lancaster in the fall of 2024, having verbaled as a reclassified 2023 sprinter (19.8/44.3, 48.5 fly).

No other info off the top of my head, but 2024's #1 recruit Daniel Diehl will be visiting in the coming weeks. Looking forward to see how the class shapes up.

https://swimswam.com/sprinter-matthew-elliott-verbally-commits-to-cal-for-2024-25/

SwimSwam article re Elliott verbal.

swimmer19 said:

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SwimSwam #5 Lucca Battaglini from NC verbaled to Cal today. Best times of 19.96/43.80/1:36.48 sprints, 47.3 fly, 48.6 backstroke. Welcome!

"As I am wrapping up swimming on the east coast, I am excited to head over to the west coast in 2024 to continue my swimming and academic career at The University of California, Berkeley! It was an amazing process to get to this point where I had the privilege of meeting many incredible people. I'm grateful for my Dad who has been my coach for most of my swimming career, my whole family, along with everyone who has supported me all these years. I cannot thank coach Dave Durden, coach Matt Bowe, and coach David Marsh enough for giving me this opportunity to be a part of excellence. Go Bears"

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From Swimswan https://swimswam.com/cal-bears-receive-verbal-from-sprinter-lucca-battaglini-5-in-class-of-2024/

https://www.swimcloud.com/swimmer/1462940/

The Bears have another verbal commit for the class of 2024 from Thackston McMullan. (Thanks to Intuit for the heads-up).

SwimSwam has ranked him just outside of their initial top 20 swimmers in the 2024, and lists Thackston as an "honorable mention".

https://swimswam.com/thackston-mcmullan-2024-adds-his-verbal-commitment-to-a-stellar-cal-class/

swimmer19 said:

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Thanks, swan.

Matthew Elliott (Quicksilver/Santa Cruz) will join Lancaster in the fall of 2024, having verbaled as a reclassified 2023 sprinter (19.8/44.3, 48.5 fly).

No other info off the top of my head, but 2024's #1 recruit Daniel Diehl will be visiting in the coming weeks. Looking forward to see how the class shapes up.

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S19,

Cal is certainly receiving early verbals from some very talented recruits. Do you know if Daniel Diehl has visited yet?
The current four commits to the 2024 appear to be focused on freestyle, fly and IM, and Diehl would be an ideal candidate to continue Cal's outstanding record in backstroke.

swan said:

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swimmer19 said:

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Thanks, swan.

Matthew Elliott (Quicksilver/Santa Cruz) will join Lancaster in the fall of 2024, having verbaled as a reclassified 2023 sprinter (19.8/44.3, 48.5 fly).

No other info off the top of my head, but 2024's #1 recruit Daniel Diehl will be visiting in the coming weeks. Looking forward to see how the class shapes up.

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S19,

Cal is certainly receiving early verbals from some very talented recruits. Do you know if Daniel Diehl has visited yet?
The current four commits to the 2024 appear to be focused on freestyle, fly and IM, and Diehl would be an ideal candidate to continue Cal's outstanding record in backstroke.

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He'd be the cherry on top.

No other info re: Diehl's visit. I believe Cal is his 4th trip per his comment on the SwimSwam podcast - other visits included Texas, Indiana, NC State, and Louisville, and has already taken trips to Austin and Bloomington per social media.

Diehl would be a monster addition to the class, but unfortunately, I think he may be a tough one to pull. He comes from a pretty small rural town in western Maryland, a two hour plus drive from both Pittsburgh and Baltimore. The fact that he doesn't mention academics when he talked about what he is looking for in a program may not be a big deal, but I don't think it helps Cal. He does say he wants a coach that will give strong emphasis to long course training, and that does appear to be a strong suit for Cal, especially in backstroke with Pebley, Murphy, Carr, Mefford, Lasco et al part of Backstroke U.

He states in the SwimSwam interview he is looking to make an early decision so perhaps we will soon know where he decides to go.

Cal's last #1 recruit was Ryan Hoffer in the 2017 class.

swan said:

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Daniel Diehl is in Berkeley this weekend and was present at the Cal swimming championship ring ceremony Friday evening at Legends. He is the only prospect visiting this weekend and he appeared to be enjoying himself hanging out with the team. The celebratory event was relaxed and fun, and both Durden and Marsh gave funny and inspiring short speeches. Coach Durden is simply a class act, and Cal swimming is a brotherhood for life.

Somewhat surprising and noteworthy, was the news coming out of Austin, where former #1 SwimSwam recruit (class of 2021) Anthony Grimm has joined several other swimmers leaving Texas with eligibility remaining. I would speculate that this may be a factor in any recruit considering Texas at the present time.

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Do you mean recruits may now not want to come to a program that may now not be one of the top teams due to departing talent or that they will want to come since they will now be in the spotlight and the face of the team?

"Do you mean recruits may now not want to come to a program that may now not be one of the top teams due to departing talent or that they will want to come since they will now be in the spotlight and the face of the team?"

My take would be that the host of swimmers leaving a program would be a red flag for a prospect. I have no idea what is going on in Austin, but it's not a good look when several guys who were expected to be important contributors are leaving, especially as in the case of Anthony Grimm, with having to sit out the current season since the portal rules have changed.

To be fair, Texas is still loaded with talent and with their diving advantage, they have a very good chance of winning in March if Cal or Florida falter slightly (injuries, missed tapers, disqualification etc.) But as for recruiting, with the lone star state boosting 5 of SwimSwam's top 20 prospects for the class of 2024, none of the top 20 have verballed for the Longhorns while Cal has verbals from 2 of the top 10 plus two other highly regarded recruits. Texas usually gets early commitments in the recruiting cycle as swimmers try to grab a roster spot to train with Eddie Reese.

Now, just watch a flood of Texas verbals, but something does seem off.

Has Reece announced his retirement yet? I think he is approaching 80.

Polodad said:

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Has Reece announced his retirement yet? I think he is approaching 80.

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I vaguely recall Eddie Reese announced his retirement a couple of years ago, but quickly "unretired" with promises that he could reduce his travel.
Reese is 81 which ought to be a negative factor in Texas recruiting efforts but until the 2024 class, Texas has continued to recruit at elite levels.

swan said:

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"Now, just watch a flood of Texas verbals, but something does seem off."

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Cooper Lucas, a prep recruit from Texas, and SwimSwam's # 2 ranked prospect, just announced his intention to attend UT.

Our aquatics programs (with the exception of all that's going on with the McKeever situation) seem to be so well run. Just marveling at the recruiting prowess

How long have we been this dominant in aquatics??

Since the '70's starting with water polo under Pete Cutino.

IIRC Nort Thorten won a Natty with Men's swimming in the late '70's.

Two new verbals for the 2024 class - welcome to Edward Huang and August Vetsch!

Huang is a local backstroke recruit from Fremont, with times of 48.8/1:48.9 and is also 49.2 in fly and 45.6 free. Vetsch is a SwimSwam BOTR 48.5/1:49 flyer with a 44.8 free from Arizona and Swim Neptune, the same team as 2023 commit Keaton Jones.

SwimMAC distance standout Freddy Klein has verbaled to Cal - make that 7 for the class of 2024!

Only 4:35 in the 500, but boasts 9:15/15:27 in the longer range events. In long course, has the Team Trials cut in the 1500 (15:42) and the US Open cut in the 200 breast (2:20) and 400 IM (4:27)

Polodad said:

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IIRC Nort Thorten won a Natty with Men's swimming in the late '70's.

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Nort won two in a row: 1979 and 1980

swimmer19 said:

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SwimMAC distance standout Freddy Klein has verbaled to Cal - make that 7 for the class of 2024!

Only 4:35 in the 500, but boasts 9:15/15:27 in the longer range events. In long course, has the Team Trials cut in the 1500 (15:42) and the US Open cut in the 200 breast (2:20) and 400 IM (4:27)

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Klein's 1500 L time of 15:42.62 swam in August 2022 converts to 15:18.93 in the 1650 which is promising for the 16 year old.

Wow. This is potentially a major addition to the team. I use the term "potentially" because Pieter is taking a gap year to stay and train in South Africa until fall 2024, and stuff can happen in two years. But if he stays the Cal course, Coetze projects to be a major point earner at NCAAs with his backstroke range and free sprint speed. His times as converted by SwimSwam place him near or at the top in the 100/200 back, and 50 free for the classes of 2023 and 2024. His converted time in the 100 free, is a nice card to hold as well for relay flexibility.

According to the linked Swimmingworld article NC State has a verbal commitment from Poland's Ksawery Masiuk who out touched Coetze in the 50 and 100 back at the World Junior Championships in Peru in late August. With these commitments in hand for the class of 2024, I don't know how hard either Cal or NC State are going to pursue a verbal from Daniel Diehl, or how much scholarship money is available for an athlete who will likely require a full scholarship offer.

Daniel mentioned in his SwimSwam interview that he was visiting Cal, NC state, Indiana, Texas and Louisville.
With the international commitments for the Bears and Wolfpack, it would appear Texas, Indy and L'vill have the greater need, but various factors IMHO favor NC State as Mr. Diehl's ultimate destination for college, with Texas as a dark horse because of the noise that is coming out of that program.

I hope I am wrong and he heads out west to Cal.


https://www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/news/pieter-coetze-commits-to-swimming-in-college-at-cal/

Per SwimSwam comments, Nick is a dual citizen of US and Singapore, in order to represent Singapore internationally. The Singaporean citizenship means he's required to fulfill national service unless he renounced it very recently.

The goal would be for him to achieve the FINA A cut(s) 59.49/2:09.68 between March 1st, 2023 and June 23, 2024 to make Singapore's Olympic team and receive a deferral for as long as possible, which would follow in the footsteps of Zheng Quah, another Cal swimmer representing Singapore on the world stage.

S19,

You are totally on point regarding NIck's focus on reaching an A cut in either the 100 or 200 Breast to compete for Singapore in Paris in 2024.

If Nick is able to have his national service deferred until he is 21, he has a decision to make regarding citizenship that Quah Zheng Wen did not have to make. If Nick decides to keep his US citizenship, he must give up his Singapore citizenship, which I can only assume would terminate his requirement to do national service. Singapore does not allow for dual citizenship past the age of 21.

The weird situation might arise if Nick doesn't get an A cut, but is set on keeping his US citizenship when he turns 21. If he gets "called" for service, I would guess he just needs to stay out of Singapore, but for how long? I have difficulty believing that a young man who is a US citizen now, and wants to retain US citizenship past the age of 21 would give up two years to perform national service in Singapore.

swimmer19 said:

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Thanks, swan.

Matthew Elliott (Quicksilver/Santa Cruz) will join Lancaster in the fall of 2024, having verbaled as a reclassified 2023 sprinter (19.8/44.3, 48.5 fly).

No other info off the top of my head, but 2024's #1 recruit Daniel Diehl will be visiting in the coming weeks. Looking forward to see how the class shapes up.

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Matthew was involved in a terrible rollover car accident. Not sure of the date of the accident but a Go-Fund-me page has been established for him.

https://swimswam.com/cal-commit-winter-juniors-finalist-matthew-elliott-hospitalized-after-car-crash/

Any news on Kaii Winkler and Daniel Diehl?
If they both come to Cal, winning NC championship is very much secured for the coming years.

solobear said:

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Any news on Kaii Winkler and Daniel Diehl?
If they both come to Cal, winning NC championship is very much secured for the coming years.

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Diehl visited in October and I do not know if Winkler made it out to Berkeley, but I don't think the numbers work to have either on the Bear roster. The 2024 class already has 9 verbal commits, including the injured sprinter Matt Elliot. The class headliner is Pieter Coetze from South Africa, but also includes well-regarded sprinter Lucas Battaglini, IMer Carter Lancaster, breaststroker Nick Mahabir and distance freestyler Freddy Klein.

Signed ✍

From La Reunion to Spieker Aquatics Complex.

Welcome to Berkeley Nans!#GoBears pic.twitter.com/bOSuT2vNGh

— Cal Men's Swim & Dive (@calmenswim) March 8, 2023

solobear said:

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Signed ✍

From La Reunion to Spieker Aquatics Complex.

Welcome to Berkeley Nans!#GoBears pic.twitter.com/bOSuT2vNGh

— Cal Men's Swim & Dive (@calmenswim) March 8, 2023

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I am guessing that Nans is joining the incoming Fall 2023 class. He appears to be a 50/100 free specialist with best times that are very similar to another 2023 recruit, Nikolas Antoniou an Olympian from Cypress. Welcome to Berkeley Nans.

Has Nic Antoniou signed with Cal? Looks like the rest of the entering freshman class is featured on the team IG @calmenswim. Is there a chance he will defer to after Paris?

Similarly, will Zach Tan enroll after Paris as well? He is enlisted in military service in Singapore, but I believe his 2 years conclude in the start of 2024.