RANKING THE 2019 MEN'S RECRUITING CLASSES: #1-4#4: CALIFORNIA GOLDEN BEARSTop-tier additions: #12
Jason Louser (NY IM/breast),
Hugo Gonzalez (Auburn transfer IM/back), Jacques Lauffer (Switzerland breast/IM), Nick Hart (IN diving),
Michael Petrides (HI free),
Calvin David (CA distance),
Colby Mefford (CA free/back),
Will Pelton (MD fly/back),
Sebastian Somerset (Canada back)
The rest: Addie Laurencelle (SC sprint free),
Preston Niayesh (CA breast)
Cal has had the #1-ranked class two of the past three years, but last year checked in at just #8. This year's group splits the difference between those two levels.
The Golden Bears didn't pull in a ton of top-20 recruits, but got a high-impact transfer, a great international and then a bunch of guys likely in the 21-50 range domestically.Hugo Gonzalez was the big get. A freshman standout for Auburn back in 2017, Gonzalez sat out last season, but plans to resurface for Cal this season. H
is production is elite: NCAA A final times in both IMs (3:35.7/1:40.6) and the 200 back (1:39.0). During his Auburn season, Gonzalez was great at conference but awful at NCAAs. He'll have to level that out to be the kind of scoring threat we're projecting him to be, but that's probably much easier to do in the Pac-12, where teams seem to care very little about the conference championships compared to the rough-and-tumble SEC.
The best part about Gonzalez: he should have three full years of college eligibility remaining, making him closer to a true college freshman than a typical upperclassmen transfer.
Domestically, Cal got #12
Jason Louser, a fast-rising IMer from New York with massive potential. Louser has a huge frame, long arms and
an excellent improvement curve in the IMs. He's not far off of NCAA invite status in the 400 IM (he was 3:45.87 last year), and is one of the class's better 200 IMers (1:46.00). Louser is also 53.9/1:57.0 in breaststroke, and
should help ease the loss of former IM/breast standout Andrew Seliskar.
Adding to perhaps the nation's toughest breaststroke group is Swiss import
Jacques Lauffer. A national teamer for Switzerland, Lauffer has been 1:01.6 and 2:11.4 in the long course breaststrokers. The latter, in particular, converts close to NCAA invite range. Long course to short course conversions are always difficult to project, but
Lauffer has a chance to be a freshman scorer, especially with a lot of the top NCAA breaststrokers graduating.
And a surprise:
Cal got a top dive recruit. That's been rare for Cal, but they're hoping to make it the norm with the completion of their on-campus platform diving facility in 2016.
Nick Hart has represented Team USA at World Juniors, and has been top 20 at USA Diving Senior Nationals.
Getting the Lafayette, Indiana prospect to leave Indiana a hotbed of diving and also home of Cal competitor Indiana University is a major get.The rest of the class are high-end developmental guys.
Calvin David is a 15:12 miler with great range down to a 1:36 200 free. He overlaps there with Hawaii's
Michael Petrides, who is 1:35.2 and 44.3 in the 100 good relay depth. There are a couple of legacy commits that might excite fans with their names:
Colby Mefford is a 1:35.5 freestyler and 1:44.4/48.2 backstroker, reminiscent of his older brother Bryce, now a Cal junior and key scorer at the last two NCAAs.
Will Pelton is a 47.9 flyer and 48.7/1:45.5 backstroker, who follows former women's NCAA champ and older sister Elizabeth to Berkeley.
Then there's one more international:
Sebastian Somerset out of Canada is a 55.9/2:00.1 backstroker in long course meters. He joins the burgeoning Cal backstroke factory, and
brings in a 200 back time that could put him near NCAA invite status if it transfers over well from long course.
FAST RISER TO WATCH: Colby Mefford might not be as early a scorer as older brother Bryce was, but
his improvement curve is excellent. Most notably, Colby went from 1:47.8 to 1:44.4 in the 200 back as a senior, and also from 1:37.2 to 1:35.5 in the 200 free.
#3: VIRGINIA CAVAILERS#2: NC STATE WOLFPACK#1: TEXAS LONGHORNSMEN'S CLASSES 5-8MEN'S CLASSES 9-12
