OBear073akaSMFan;842708271 said:
My Wag
4. Florida
3 Furds
2 Texas
1. Cal
[COLOR="#006699"]Well, guess 3 out of 4 ain't too shabby,
OBear![/COLOR] :beer:
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[COLOR="#000066"][SIZE=5]
Ranking the 2016 Men's NCAA Recruiting Classes: #1-4[/SIZE][/COLOR]
[SIZE=1]
Matthew Josa recently announced he's joining a loaded class in Berkeley this fall[/SIZE]
12. Harvard Crimson
11. Virginia Cavaliers
10. Arizona State Sun Devils
9. Tennessee Volunteers
8. Georgia Bulldogs
7. USC Trojans
6. UNC Tarheels
5. NC State Wolfpack
#4: Florida GatorsTop-tier additions: #1 Maxime Rooney, Taylor Delk, Nazareno Boscaino, Viktor Toth, Chandler Bray, Drew Clark
The rest: Alex Farrow (diving), Dylan Power (diving), Tyler Silver, Dakota Mahaffey, Marco Guarente
#3: Stanford CardinalTop-tier additions: #3 Grant Shoults, #4 True Sweetser, #18 Benjamin Ho, #19 James Murphy, William Macmillan, Hank Poppe, Alwyn Tan, Cameron Thatcher (diving)
#2: Michigan WolverinesTop-tier additions: #9 James Jones, #12 Jeremy Babinet, #14 Charlie Swanson, #15 Thomas Cope, Felix Auboeck, Alexander Martin, Jacob Montague
The rest: Miles Smachlo, Rob Zofchak
[SIZE=3][COLOR="#FFD700"]
#1: California Golden Bears[/COLOR][/SIZE]
[U]Top-tier additions[/U]: Matthew Josa (transfer Queens), #2 Michael Jensen, #5 Jack Xie, #10 Andrea Vergani, #11 Ethan Young, #17 Albert Gwo, Andy Song An, Pawel Sendyk, 'Aukai Lileikis, Karl Arvidsson, Shane Forker
Holy moly, this group. Even before Matthew Josa announced he was transferring to Cal last week, the Bears far and away had the top class in the country. The class by the numbers:
[INDENT] 5 the number of swimmers who are 20.0/44.0 or faster in both the 50 and 100 freestyle (not including Pawel Sendyk, who's been 23.1/50.2 in long course meters)
[INDENT]◦ Matthew Josa 19.9/42.7
◦ Michael Jensen 19.8/42.7
◦ 'Aukai Lileikis 19.9/43.6
◦ Albert Gwo 19.9/44.0
◦ Andrea Vergani 20.0/43.9[/INDENT]
5 the number of swimmers who are under 48 seconds in the 100 back or 100 fly
[INDENT]◦ Josa 44.9/1:43.0 flyer
◦ Jensen 47.3 100 fly
◦ Jack Xie 46.7/1:45.8 flyer
◦ Ethan Young 21.6/46.7/1:43.0 backstroker
◦ Andy Song An 47.6/1:45.8 backstroker[/INDENT]
2 breaststrokers at 55.0/2:00.0 or better (Xie at 54.9/1:59.4, Karl Arvidsson at 55.0/1:59.9)
3 200 freestylers under 1:35 (Jensen at 1:33.9, Lileikis at 1:34.8, Josa at 1:34.2)[/INDENT]
There's at least another half-dozen other mind-blowing facts, but this gives you an idea. This class was great before adding Josa, and now, with two years of a guy who has already broken 45 seconds in the 100 fly and 1:42 in the 200 IM, it's all-time great. There's eleven names here, and even the "weaker" ones would be among the best in just about every other class; Arvidsson is a 55.0/1:59.9 breaststroker, and Shane Forker is a 4:24.5/9:11.2/15:21 freestyler.
Simply put, these guys really help even out the clear edge that the Texas Longhorns have had the past two seasons. It may not happen next year (Texas is returning nearly every critical piece), but the Bears are in line to bring the title back to Berkeley soon enough.
https://swimswam.com/ranking-2016-mens-ncaa-recruiting-classes-1-4/-------
