By Noah Duperre on SwimSwam
While a bulk of the team points in NCAA Swimming and Diving meets come from swimming, diving is often a hot topic at championship meets, as it has the potential to play a huge role and sway results in an unpredictable manner.
In an effort to expand NCAA coverage here on SwimSwam, we have compiled a list of the top 10 men’s recruits for the high school class of 2027. The goal of this expanded coverage is to provide our readers with a more complete view of how recruiting will impact the future of a team.
Methodology
Ranking divers is more complex and less black and white than ranking swimmers. Diving is a subjective sport, meaning that simply looking at scores does not provide a full picture compared to looking at a swimmer’s time. The scoring is open up to interpretation, so it was important for us not just to look at results while compiling these rankings, but to also analyze video and formulate our own opinions in the process.
Within Division I of the NCAA, most dual meets in diving only contest the one meter and three meter springboard events. Platform diving, for the most part, only comes into play for invitationals and championship meets. Divers with the ability to compete platform right out of high school are not very common, but are very valuable. This versatility of having a platform-capable diver is important for college teams to have because it simply means more chances to score points.
Being successful in the junior ranks in diving does not always translate to success at the NCAA or senior level. It was important for us to consider potential when composing this ranking as previous success isn’t always a reliable indicator.
This list focuses on American-based athletes as it is difficult to predict if international athletes will choose to compete in the NCAA. Additionally, this list is not exhaustive of all the talented NCAA recruits in this class and does not mean any diver omitted doesn’t have the potential to make valuable contributions to a college team.
Honorable Mentions
Brady Benne – Frontier Diving Club – Cheyenne Central High School – Cheyenne, WY
Brady Benne is mainly a springboard diver and has only been competing in the USA Diving circuit since 2022. He has a lot of strength and ability to get height off the board, which bodes well for his future development. What keeps him off the main list for the time being is that he tends to have some obvious form breaks and could improve on his basic fundamentals.
Taylor Isaac – Glenbrook Aquatics Diving – Glenbrook South High School – Glenview, IL
Taylor Isaac is a springboard-only diver, which already limits his scoring potential. However, he has nice form and is very fast-twitched, giving him a high ceiling for learning harder dives in the future. Like Benne, he’s newer to competing on the national level, but has a lot of potential for improvement.
Top 10
10. Dylan Zimsky – Montgomery Dive Club – Bullis School – Bethesda, MD **Verbally committed to Duke**
The first official entrant on our top ten list is Montgomery Dive Club’s Dylan Zimsky. Contrary to our two honorable mentions, Zimsky is mainly a platform diver. He still competes springboard, which is important for early season meets, but has three potential scoring events rather than two. Zimsky also has the impressive ability to enter the water without much splash, which leaves the judges with a good impression.
9. Rhett Smerklo – Longhorn Aquatics – St. Stephen’s Episcopal School – Austin, TX
Rhett Smerklo has improved tons just over the last season alone. The biggest impression he’s made has been on the platform. He’s been working on some really big dives on the ten meter and is also improving his springboard difficulty. Right now, he still needs a little refinement with form and the small details, but his current improvement curve is sure to take him far.
8. David Randolph – Atlanta Diving Association – Riverwood High School – Sandy Springs, GA **Verbally committed to Duke**
Randolph is equally impressive on springboard and platform. That balance is kind of rare and most divers slot into either the “springboard diver” or “platform diver” categories. Based on training videos he put out online alone, Randolph would probably vault himself up a few spots on this list. However, looking at his recent scores, he hasn’t quite been able to replicate those performances in meets. Once he gets more experience, he’ll gain more confidence in front of the judges and be able to perform. But it’s obvious he has the ability to be a strong addition to pretty much any team.
7. Landyn Snook – TNT Diving – Bishop Shanahan High School – Coatesville, PA
Though Snook is a “springboard diver,” he does have platform experience, which is a big distinction to make. Because he has experience on platform, he has more potential to develop higher-level platform dives in the future. Snook’s biggest strength is his form and overall cleanliness. However, his timing and boardwork could use improvement, which would help him get more height. Because of this, he still competes relatively simple dives compared to the other athletes on the list.
6. Jack Ma – GC Diving – Carroll Senior High School – Grapevine, TX
Over the last 12 months, Jack Ma is probably the most improved out of anyone on this list. Ma already had the ability to be fast twitched and flip more quickly. In the past year, not only has his boardwork improved, he’s also started developing his platform list more, making him a more valuable asset on the championship level. He still has quite a ways to go on the execution front, losing form at times and just a general lack of refinement in the air. He’s come such a long way in the recent months, and that makes me curious to see where more practice time will have him another 12 months from now.
5. Max Van Stone – Clayton Diving Alliance – Chaminade College Preparatory School – Chesterfield, MO **Verbally committed to Princeton**
Max Van Stone is a very consistent and steady diver, which is a very underestimated trait in the sport. One thing that holds Max’s potential back is that he is currently a springboard-one diver, limiting the events he can score in. It’s not unheard of for a diver to learn to compete platform when arriving at college, but it does leave them at a disadvantage compared to those who have prior experience from the junior level. As a young junior diver, Max was strong and at the top of the pack. This year, his results haven’t been quite as strong as in the past. He’s still a good diver, but he’ll need to rebound this upcoming season to avoid slipping down the rankings.
4. Andrew Keir – ACES Diving – Westerville South High School – Westerville, OH **Verbally committed to Wisconsin**
Andrew Keir has great mechanics, great form, and is very well taught. His overall cleanliness across all three diving events is something that will take him a long way, as it’s not something that can easily be coached. On springboard, he has great boardwork and is able to really use the spring to get a lot of height. And on the platform, Keir has the all too important ability to enter the water with minimal splash. The only thing keeping him from rising up the list at the moment is the fact that he hasn’t been able to put up a truly “lights out” list together in a big meet. Usually, he has one or two misses that keep him from really rising to the top, but competing more will help with his consistency over time.
3. Mikolas Schwickert – Clavadistas del Sol – Arizona Virtual Academy – Scottsdale, AZ
Mikolas Schwickert of Clavadistas del Sol kicks off our top three. He’s the perfect example of a springboard diver who also competes platform. Meaning, he focuses mostly on the one and three-meter events, but has enough platform experience to be able to compete from time to time. This automatically makes him more valuable at the NCAA level, as he is more likely to develop on the platform due to his prior experience. In addition to that, he also has a lot of experience competing for team USA on the junior international level.
While he may not have the huge dives that are required to be competitive at the NCAA level yet, Schwickert sets himself apart in not only his execution, but his consistency. This trait will set him up for success because at a meet like the NCAA Zones, consistency is especially important. There are a few minor details in form and overall impression that he still needs to clean up, but as a high school junior, he has plenty of time to iron those out.
2. Jackson Monus – ACES Diving – Bexley High School – Bexley, OH **Verbally committed to Indiana**
The second diver from ACES Diving in our top four is Jackson Monus. I would say he and Schwickert, the previous entrant, are about even on the springboard events. They both have consistency and overall cleanliness, but with relatively easier dives. While Monus doesn’t have as much international experience, what really put him into the top two of this list is his platform ability.
Jackson Monus is consistently improving and impressing with his relatively new 10 meter competition list. He has only been seriously training and competing on the ten meter for less than a year now, but already has put up strong scores on a lot of his dives. He still struggles a bit with consistency there, but his highs are very high. Once he gets more comfortable up top and continues to develop his list, he’s going to be a strong competitor on both the conference and NCAA championship level.
1. Jacob Mannarino – Orlando Dive Academy – Windermere High School – Orlando, FL **Verbally committed to Tennessee**
Usually, I weigh springboard ability over platform ability when compiling the list. There are two springboard events and only one platform event, so it makes sense to put less emphasis on the latter. Jacob Mannarino is a decent springboard diver but admittedly, not a stellar one. Despite that, he is still undoubtedly number one in his class because he is that good on the platform.
He has been a rising star in the junior ranks for years now, but this summer was really his breakout season. He showed up to junior nationals not only with upgraded difficulty, but upgraded execution as well. The only thing more impressive than a diver executing one of the hardest dives in the world for all “10’s” is when that diver is just 16 years old. His improvement curve the past 12 months is impressive to say the least and it’s extremely rare to see a diver (especially on the male side) with NCAA scoring potential as a high school junior. If he stays on this path, Mannarino will be an NCAA title contender all four years of school.
Read the full story on SwimSwam: The Top 10 NCAA Diving Recruits in the Boys’ Class of 2027
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