Way Too Early Recruit Rankings: Boys’ High School Class of 2028 ...Middle East

By Sam Blacker on SwimSwam

We continue our traditional recruiting coverage with our “Way Too Early” ranks of the upcoming season’s high school junior class. Since top recruits have started giving their verbal commitments earlier and earlier, we’ve moved up our rankings to help give better context to big recruiting announcements.

Before we run over our traditional ranking methodology, we should head off a few counterarguments at the pass:

THE METHODOLOGY

Our goal in these rankings is to reflect what college coaches look for in recruits, based on many years of conversations and coverage.

We focus only on American-based athletes, simply because there is so much uncertainty with international recruits – if they’ll come to the United States, when they’ll come to the States and with what graduating class they should be ranked. Projecting international recruits often becomes more of a discussion of when they’ll first join a college program and not which program they’ll join.

A few other factors that weigh heavily in our rankings:

Of course, there’s no way to predict the future, and the most concrete data we have to go on are cold, hard times. These rankings in no way mean that all of these 20 swimmers will be NCAA standouts, and they certainly don’t mean that no swimmer left off this list will make big contributions at the NCAA level.

THIS CLASS

This class is a bit of a break from the previous couple, with no Luke Mijatovic/Baylor Stanton/Maximus Williamson figure at the top. Instead, the 2028 class mirrors this year’s NBA draft with a group of four at the top ahead of the field. Kai Joyner, David Sammons, Syunta Lee, and Charlie Cancelmo are all versatile swimmers who are elite across multiple events and strokes, but with their own clear strengths.

Joyner is another elite distance freestyler, Cancelmo is faster in the 200 fly than Michael Phelps was at his age, and Sammons and Lee can swim just about everything bar breaststroke. Developing an elite event or two that really stands out will be what separates those four next season, as could the sprint freestyle development in what is not looking like a particularly strong class for relay value.

There are a lot of good two distance IM swimmers in the class, although the depth seems to be slightly stronger in the 400. Sprint freestyle is a weakness though, with no swimmer sub-20 in the 50 and only one under 44 seconds in the 100 free. The depth is a little shaky in those events as well, and is the same for the 200 free where there are just four swimmers under 1:36 and eight under 1:37. Distance freestyle fares better, especially in the mile. Kai Joyner is under 15 minutes, and there are another three swimmers under 15:10.

A lot of the better swimmers in this class have a solid time in at least one IM distance to their stroke focus, but the form strokes don’t see too many elite two-distance swimmers with a lot of the top fly and back swimmers having one distance clearly superior to the other. Sprint breaststroke also seems to be a little weak right now. Part of the former comes with being a high school sophomore, but the swimmers that can improve the standard of their weaker distance stand to gain a lot over the next 12 months.

Without further ado, let’s get started with these rankings.

TOP TIMES IN THE CLASS OF 2025

**The 1000 free isn’t an event at the Division I NCAA Championships, but is swum instead of the 1650 in many Division I dual meets and is part of the NCAA program in Division II.

With that out of the way, let’s get to our rankings.

Disclaimer: there are a lot of high school juniors in the country, and no really good, complete, 100% accurate listing of them all. If you don’t see your favorite swimmer on the list, feel free to politely point them out in the comments. There’s a chance that we disagree with your assessment of their spot in the top 20, and so long as it’s done civilly, there’s no problem with differences of opinions. There’s also a chance that we’ve simply missed a no-brainer (we’ve taken every precaution to avoid that), and if that happens, we want to make sure we correct it.

Sprint Free:

Distance Free:

Backstroke:

Breaststroke:

Butterfly:

IM:

Honorable Mentions

Denzo Senekal — Blue Dolphins Oviedo/WinterPark — Winter Park High School — Oviedo, FL 

Best Times: 

Senekal is one of the more single-event focused swimmers in this class. He is solid across the sprint freestyles with bests of 21.19/45.75/1:38.15, but it is his 200 back that stands out. His 100 back is only 49.21, outside the top ten in this class, but his 200 ranks second behind Grant Bellin at 1:44.05, a 4.73 second drop from last year. His 500 free is, however, the seventh-fastest in the class at 4:23.67, a five second drop from last season.

He has just two SCY swims on record this season, both from Winter Juniors East where he clocked 1:44.05 in the heats and 1:44.19 in the final to finish 4th. He seems to have a strong back half to the race, closing in 53.29 in his PB swim.

He was 56.22/2:01.00 in LCM last summer, which indicates that his 100 has time to drop still. If he can keep his sprint freestyles ticking over – he dropped from 22.45 to 21.19 in the 50 free last year, but only cut half a second in the 100 free – he could be a solid backstroke option with some sprint relay heft. That 500 is also a solid-looking event for him.

Sawyer Wilson — Kentucky Aquatics (KY) — Madison Central High School — Lexington, KY

Best Times:

There are a few 50/100/200 freestylers in this class clustered around Wilson’s times, but unlike the majority he has dropped major time this year. In the 50 free he has gone from 22.10 to 20.64, and from 47.10 to 44.64 in the 100 free. Both of those times came at Cary Sectionals in March, which looks to have been his main taper meet this year – he didn’t even qualify for Winter Juniors.

In his 200 free he has cut seven seconds, dropping from 1:44.94 to 1:37.50, but it is worth noting the splitting for all three of his fastest swims. In his PB he split 48.22/49.28, and was even more even at 49.23/49.59 and 49.52/49.35 with a pair of 1:38.8s. Remember – this is a swimmer who is primarily a sprint freestyler and has a best of just 5:04 in the 500. If he can maintain that back half, which is already roughly on par with a conference ‘B’ final, his 200 could be scary next year.

Ryker Levi — Scarlet Aquatics — Northern Highlands Regional High School — Mahwah, NJ

Best Times:

Levi is one of the top sprinters in this class, ranking near the top in the 50 free and 100 fly. He has dropped half a second so far this season in the first of those, going from 21.11 to 20.55, and has six sub-21 swims to his name as he has steadily dropped throughout the season. In the 100 fly he has dropped nearly three seconds from 49.64 to 46.94, one of only three swimmers in the class to break 47 seconds.

He goes up one notch on the distance scale in each event, although he almost certainly has more time to drop in his 100 free. He is less than two seconds faster than his 100 fly, and has dropped seven tenths of a second in his 100 fly since setting his 100 free PB. The 200 fly may prove a more natural third event after a huge 9.93 second drop this year, and his splitting suggests there is more to come. He roared home in 27.06 at the NJS 11 & Over Gold Championships in December, a second and a half faster than his third 50 split, and a 46.94 100 flyer should have more easy speed than just a 51.95.

While Levi does not really venture outside those core four events, with a 1:39.61 200 free his next best, free/fly sprinters will always be a valuable commodity. Ones that can throw down a rapid 200 fly as well are even more so, and a 4.61 second drop in the LCM 200 fly already this season indicates that he could really explode next season. If he keeps his freestyle ticking over and continues delivering the drops in fly, he could vault up these rankings next year.

Spencer Greene — Denver Swim Academy — Regis Jesuit High School — Englewood, CO

Best Times:

A very similar swimmer to Ryker Levi who is ranked above him, Greene has a little more speed in the 100 free but doesn’t quite have Levi’s level of control nor raw times in the 200 fly. Greene has been dropping time in all his main events, going from 21.28 to 20.71 in the 50 free and hacking off nearly three seconds in the 100 free to go 44.70 at the CHSAA Boys 5A State Championships in May. His opening 50 there was 21.14, so that 50 free PB would look to be on borrowed time, but both swims came at the same meet. He should be able to drop down closer to 20 seconds though, which would make him one of the top sprinters in the class.

The big drops rear their head in fly as well, where Greene has gone from 1:59.14 to 1:49.94 in the 200 and 48.39 to 46.89 in the 100. The 200 improvement has come across all four 50s but the majority on the third where he went from 31.87 to 28.08. He still lacks some of the strength required in the event, falling to 29.72 on the final 50 in his PB, and he is only 2:09.71 in long course. He may double down on the sprints, especially with a pair of 20.9 50 fly relay splits in hand, and the free/fly sprinter is a relatively successful archetype in the NCAA.

Hutch Paxton — Nashville Aquatic Club — Montgomery Bell Academy — Nashville, TN

Paxton is one of this class’s top sprinters, just off top spot in both the 50 free, 100 free and 100 fly, but has stalled a little this year compared to some of the swimmers around him. He has dropped 0.66 seconds in his 50 free, clocking a PB of 20.61 in the heats at the SE TNAQ Speedo Southern Premier Meet before blasting a 20.17 for second in the final, but his other main events have seen only small drops this season.

In the 100 free he has gone from 45.10 to 44.34, which does rank fifth in the class, but in fly he has dropped just 0.14 seconds  in the 100 and his 200 fly best is from March 2025. He has a strong NCAA lineup with relay value, but he needs to kick on in his junior year. In long course, he set a best of 51.82 in the 100 free in April, and has a 100 fly best of 53.84, not too far behind Charlie Cancelmo’s 53.20, so there is certainly scope for some big swims in yards.

Ethan Zhou — Metroplex Aquatics — Homeschooled — Plano, TX

Best Times:

Zhou is the #4 200 breaststroker in this class and is not far away from the 55 second barrier in the 100, but lacks the IM prowess of some of his fellow breaststrokers in the class. He has a best of 1:50.28 in the 200 IM, which is a 4.52 second drop, and while his back half is a relatively strong 30.90/25.75, his backstroke leg is consistently 29-point.

His 100 breast has also dropped just half a second this year, from 55.54 to 55.03, but considering that he went out in 56.37 in his 200 breast PB that is almost certainly not a proper indication of his sprinting abilities. The 200 has been by far his best event this season, going from 2:02.06 to 1:57.97, and having recorded four sub-2:00 swims. If he can get over the hump in the 100 breast and work on his backstroke, there is room for him to move up.

Everett Losch — Lake Erie Silver Dolphins — Hawken School — Novelty, OH

Best Times:

Losch has a pretty well-defined NCAA schedule already, and it is one with a ton of relay value. His main events are the 50 free, 100 free, and 100 back, and his trajectory in all three indicates he could be a top 20 swimmer next year.

In the 50 he is 12th in the class at 20.51, although that is less than a tenth away from 7th. He has dropped a full second from the 21.49 he came into the season with, and he has also cut a second and a half in the 100 free, going from 46.11 to 44.57. Backstroke is the area where he has improved most this year however, hacking 3.61 seconds off in the 100 to drop from 51.67 to 48.06, #4 in the class, and right at the top in the 50 back with a 22.42, which is one of three sub-23 swims this season. That is a 2.43 second drop from last season, and his long course swims back up the idea that he will be one to watch next year. Previously owning bests of 29.91 and 1:02.12, he is now 26.61/58.50, with five sub-1:00 swims in the 100 back already this year.

TOP 20 SWIMMERS FROM THE CLASS OF 2027

20. David Davis — Marlins of Raleigh— Ravenscroft School — Raleigh, NC

Best Times:

Davis is on a staggering improvement curve currently, slicing huge chunks off time in both backstroke and butterfly. Coming into this season, he owned bests of 50.98/1:51.45 in fly and 51.77/1:55.33 in backstroke, but is now one of the most well-rounded fly/back swimmers in the class.

In fly he has dropped two and a half seconds in the 100, clocking 48.71 at Winter Juniors then 48.46 in March. The 200 has been a similar story – dropping nearly four seconds at Winter Juniors to go 1:47.22, then another half a second at the NCSA Spring Championships for 1:46.63. There are a lot of swimmers in this class who are elite in one distance on fly but struggle in the other, but Davis seems to hit that middle ground.

In backstroke his big drops came in the spring at NCSAs, where he clocked 48.87 in the 100 and 1:46.67 in the 200. He had already dropped more than four seconds in the latter distance with a 1:50.77 at Winter Juniors, but knocked a couple of seconds off both halves of the race later in the season.

If Davis can keep the momentum going through the long course season, which he seems to be doing with PBs in the 100 fly and 200 fly already, he could hit the ground running in September and continue his rise.

19. Austin Chu — CSP Tideriders — Clayton High School — Saint Louis, MO

Best Times:

Chu is the #2 swimmer in the 100 back and the #3 swimmer in the 200 back in this class, but doesn’t really have a third event yet. He is just 0.03 seconds off Grant Bellin in the 100 back, having dropped from 48.79 to 47.77 this season, and is just over a second and a half away from Bellin in the 200 back at 1:44.47

His 100 back has improved steadily through the season, dropping to 48.31 at Winter Juniors West and then to 47.77 at Columbia Sectionals, where he also posted times of 47.82 and 47.84, all very similarly split. His 200 back has had an almost identical scaled drop, going from 1:46.94 to 1:44.47, and although the same slight weaknesses are still there in this event for him, he has improved markedly in this regard. The final 50 is where the wheels used to fall off slightly, with a final split of 27.97 in that 1:46.94, but his two fastest times this season have featured closing 50s of 26.97 and 26.94.

However, outside of backstroke his best event is the 200 IM, where his best of 1:50.79 is from November 2024. He was just a tenth off at Winter Juniors West last December, but he has barely improved in the non-backstroke events this year. A 22.32 in the 50 back looks promising for a 200 medley relay, but his 50 free is just 21.72. He will need to add a little more versatility over the next 12 months or else dial in massively on backstroke.

18. Josiah Collins — Carmel Swim Club — Homestead High School — Carmel, IN

Best Times:

Collins has a tight 100 breast/200 breast/200 IM lineup, with no event on the same level outside of those three. He has dropped time in all three events this season, but they have solid drops rather than huge ones, and versatility is valued a little more at this point in a swimmer’s career when they don’t have a standout event.

His 200 breaststroke looks the best of the three, clocking a 1:57.94 at the Indiana Senior Championships in March for a 2.78 second drop. He swam a pair of 1:58-highs at Winter Juniors East as well, with the improvement between then and March coming mainly on his third 50. His 100 stands at 54.94, a drop of nearly two seconds this season, but for a swimmer going out in 56.29 on his 200 you would have to think there is a little more to come there.

His 200 IM proves the point that he is a breaststroke specialist, splitting 30.48 on that leg in his PB swim. He has had a 3.3 second drop so far this season, although more than half of that has come on backstroke (29.33 to 27.51). If his 400, which has only gone from 3:55.52 to 3:53.29 this year, can catch up, and he can add some more 100 speed, he will look like a good fit for a lot of programs.

17. Max Garbacz — Madison Aquatic Club — Madison West High School — Madison, WI

Best Times:

Garbacz already has a near-perfect trio of main events for the NCAA schedule as a backstroker who swims a mean 200 IM. He has not dropped as much time as some of the swimmers around him, but he was working from a relatively high baseline, ending last season at 49.86/1:46.89 on backstroke and 1:49.66 in the 200 IM.

He first broke 49 seconds in the 100 back at the Wisconsin LSC Senior Championships in March, slicing nearly a second off his best to go 48.91, before lowering his PB by another 0.16 seconds to 48.75 two weeks later. In the 200 back, he clocked 1:46.33 in the heats at Winter Juniors West to shave half a second off, before dropping another second at the NCSA Spring Championships. He swims the 200 in a mature manner, splitting 24.79/26.55/27.18/26.79 in his lifetime best swim, and he has already been within a second of his long course PB of 2:03.46 this season. Again, the splitting has positive signs for the future, posting 1:01.27/1:02.87 compared to his PB splits of 59.96/1:03.53.

Both IMs have come on this season for Garbacz, the 200 dropping from 1:49.86 to 1:47.29 and the 400 IM from 3:56.18 to 3:51.25. Interestingly, the improvements have come in different sections of the race for each distance – pretty evenly spread in the 200, and breaststroke (1:07.46 to 1:05.04) and freestyle (56.91 to 55.58) in the 400.

A little more top end speed, and developing his sprint freestyle from its current 21.72/46.14 to a relay-piece level would go a long way for Garbacz. He is solid in fly at 49.21/1:50.88, but his future is in backstroke and IM and he is one of the best in the class at that combination.

16. Parker Van Olst — New Wave Swim Team — Enloe High School — Raleigh, NC

Best Times:

Van Olst is a typical IM/breaststroke archetype, with a solid 200 fly (1:49.55) outside of those strokes but no real other elite events. He is one of the few swimmers in the class to crack 55 seconds in the 100 breast thanks to a 54.83 from the NCSA Spring Championships, 1.22 seconds faster than his PB coming into the season, and also broke 2:00 in the 200 breast for the first time this season. After coming agonisingly close with a 2:00.17 at WInter Juniors East, he posted a pair of 1:59.5s at the North Carolina Senior Champs and the NCSA Spring Championships.

His IM PBs also come from the NCSA meet in March that looks to have been the focus of his short course season. He has dropped five seconds in the 400 IM this season to go 3:50.09, one of three 3:50-point swims for him, and 2.70 seconds in the 200 IM to go 1:48.05. A 30.49 breaststroke split in the latter shows where his strengths lie. A two second PB in the LCM 200 IM already this year is also a good sign looking ahead to 2026-27.

15. Owen Miklos — Nova of Virginia Aquatics — Deep Run High School — Richmond, VA

Best Times:

Miklos is the fourth-fastest swimmer in the mile in this class at 15:10.40, which is by far his best event. He has dropped 34 seconds so far this season, improving all three times that he has swum it. He first clocked 15:26.27 at Winter Juniors East, then 1:17.56 at the Virginia Senior Championships at the start of March. Just two weeks later he hacked off another seven seconds in his PB swim, going out nearly six seconds faster to the 1000 mark.

His 1000 free ranks second in the class, but his 500 free is down in 10th at 4:25.13. Again, that is a big drop from the 4:34.84 he came into the season with, but bringing that in line with his mile over the next 12 months wouldn’t go amiss. Fly is probably his secondary stroke rather than IM, having clocked 48.78 in the 100 and 1:47.99 in the 200, both drops of multiple seconds for the season.

14. Eli Sweet — SwimMAC Carolina — Gaston Christian School — Belmont, NC

Best Times:

Sweet is solid across all four strokes, but it is in IM that his talent is apparent. With bests of 1:47.59 in the 200 IM and 3:48.73 in the 400 IM he is one of the best medley swimmers in the class, and he also has notable 200 free (1:37.66) and 200 breast (1:59.17) times.

He placed second at the North Carolina Senior Championships in the 200 IM with his 1:47.59 PB, just behind David Sammons, and split a blistering 25.04 on the final 50. While he hasn’t broken 1:49 other than that swim, he has four 1:49-points this season, and doesn’t appear to have a weakness among the strokes. His 400 IM backs that up, dropping from 3:56.09 to 3:48.73 this season for a 7.36 second drop, with five swims out of six this season coming in under his old best. He had a notable freestyle split in his 400 IM PB as well, clocking 52.28, which does make you wonder if he can drop down even more in the 200 free.

His 200 breast has gone from 2:03.71 to 1:59.17 this year, and his 100 breast time of 56.00 is less than a second faster than his opening 100 in his 200 PB. Front end speed seems to be the area in which Sweet is weakest – his 200 free has just a 2.64 second differential between the 100s – and if he works on his sprints he could develop into a Swiss army knife of a swimmer. He doesn’t have too much relay value right now, but if he converts his IM closing speed to the free events he could change that.

13. Cullen Kahl — Magnolia Aquatic Club — Homeschooled — Sprint, TX

Best Times:

Kahl has a solid breaststroke/IM combo, one of the very few swimmers in this class to crack  both 2:00 in the 200 breast and 3:50 in the 400 IM. The medleys are probably his stronger events, dropping from 1:50.86 to 1:47.78 in the 200 and 3:56.41 to 3:49.65 in the 400. His freestyle split in the latter, a 51.94 that would not be out of place in a conference final, indicates that he should be a lot quicker than 1:41.13 in the 200 free. His freestyle is definitely the area for him to improve, being just 21.75/48.87 in the sprint events as well.

However, he is still a solid all-rounder, owning a best of 1:48.07 in the 200 back, a 20 second drop. And we haven’t even come around to his breaststroke events yet, where the drops are slightly smaller than they were on IM, 56.37 to 55.17 in the 100 and 2:02.01 to 1:59.58 in the 200, but they are more than solid for this class. Once he adds a little more front end speed his 200 should be dangerous as well, as he split a balanced 58.21/1:01.37 in his PB at Sectionals in March. His breaststroke split in his 200 IM PB is a second huge sign towards this event being one to keep an eye on for him, as he clocked a rapid 29.63 to pull away from the field at that Sectional meet, going on to win by more than two seconds.

12. Isaiah Silver — Livermore Aqua Cowboys Club — Granada High School — Livermore, CA

Best Times:

Silver is a through-and-through IM swimmer, who then crosses over solidly to the stroke 200s. He ranks in the top ten in the class at both IM distances, but is slightly stronger in the 200. Silver has sliced over three seconds off his best this season, with most of that improvement coming on the back half of the race. His freestyle split of 25.41 from his PB indicates freestyle strength that would bely his 1:38.22 in the 200 free, and he has consistently been 26-low on the final 50 this season.

He looks like becoming more of a 400 IM specialist in the future however, having dropped a whopping 12.08 seconds this year. He had not cracked 4:00 at this point last year, but rocketed to a 3:48.95 in the heats at the Juanita Allington Memorial Meet in February. He was out in 1:50.69, and there is some definite time to take off in the latter two legs for him. The second 100 of his 200 breast is nearly two seconds faster than the breaststroke leg in his 400 IM.

Times of 1:47.81 in the 200 back and 1:47.84 in the 200 fly are solid for this class, and they have come via improvements of 3.75 seconds and 3.82 seconds respectively. He doesn’t come down to the stroke 100s too much, but his 100 free is actually one of the fastest in the class at 44.74 to give him some potential relay value. LCM improvements are generally a good sign for swimmers heading into their junior years – Silver has set PBs in seven events since the start of June.

11. Treyvn Krauss — University of Denver Hilltoppers — Regis Jesuit High School — Denver, CO

Best Times:

Krauss is the #3 swimmer in the class in the 500 free and 1000 free, and the #4 swimmer in the 1650 free, but has an improvement curve and the consistency to indicate that there is far more to come. Despite the ranking, the mile is his best event at 15:09.69, and he has cut nearly 15 seconds in the event so far this season. He has three swims between 15:09 and 15:12 in the mile this season, clocking his PB of 15:09.69 in November, 15:11.97 at Winter Juniors West where he placed 9th, and then 15:11.89 in March. The 500 free is a similar story, with four swims between 4:21.31 and 4:22.02 having only broken 4:30 once (with a 4:29.43 last March) prior to this season.

He looks to have some relay value already with a 1:36.52 in the 200 free, a near-three seconds drop for the season and the eighth-fastest time in the class, and has already set lifetime bests in long course this year in the 200 free, 400 free, 800 free, and 1500 free.

A 3:54.33 in the 400 IM is probably indicative of his third event at the NCAA level, where we have seen a lot of distance freestylers cross over into the 400 IM recently. A 6.73 second drop this season is also a good sign, although a breaststroke split of 1:08.87 could hold him back. Regardless, an improving distance freestyler with a ton of range and some IM chops is a great archetype for college right now, and Krauss fits that to a T.

10. Jack Maddan — First Colony Swim Team — Strake Jesuit College Prep — Sugar Land, TX

Best Times:

Maddan is the #2 swimmer in the 200 breast, in what is very much a two-swimmer class in that event, #3 in the 100 breast, and is on an absolutely scorching improvement curve. He has dropped four seconds in the 100 breast this season, going from 58.02 to 54.06, although that is one of only four sub-55 second swims in his career. He first broke 55 with a 54.76 at Winter Juniors West, before adding a 54.79 in the final, before swimming 54.23 and 54.06 at the UIL 6A State Championships.

Maddan has hacked 7.71 seconds off his 200, posting a 1:55.47 at Sectionals at the start of March, nearly two seconds faster than the 1:57.15 he swam at Winter Juniors West for 5th place. Most of that improvement came on the back half of the race – he was out only four tenths of a second faster, but closed in 1:00.01 instead of 1:01.30.

As may be expected for a breaststroker, he is a strong IM swimmer as well with times of 1:47.37/3:52.97. Again, what is notable are the time drops for each event, 7.67 seconds in the 200 IM and 10.82 seconds in the 400 IM. He has some sprint free chops as well with a 21.03 in the 50 free, and has one of the fastest 50 back times in the class thanks to a 23.09 from the UIL 6A State Championships in February. Maddan is an intriguing recruit currently, but his potential is sky high.

9. Grant Bellin — King Aquatics Club — Curtis High School — University Place, WA 

Best Times:

Bellin is a pure backstroke specialist – his best event outside the stroke is probably the 100 free at 45.53 – but he is far enough clear of everyone else in his specialist events that he is worth his spot here. He leads the class by nearly a second in the 100 back in 47.74, one of the slowest times we’ve seen lead a sophomore class in the 2020s, and is the only swimmer under 1:44 in the 20 at 1:42.72.

He has dropped nearly two seconds in the 100 back this season, having only broken 50 seconds once previously. Most of that drop came courtesy of 1 48.36 leadoff at Winter Juniors West, where he then placed 26th in the individual 100 back in 48.72, but he had three sub-48 swims in March of this year, including a pair of 47.74. That is the only one in the class under 48 seconds, and he has already dropped a second and a half in the 100 back in long course to clock 56.51. There have been bigger drops in the 200 back, in which he has gone from 1:47.87 to 1:42.72 this season, although he has just three swims under 1:45 in his career. A PB of 2:02.86 in the long course 200 in May is a good sign however.

Bellin probably needs to develop a third event to really make some moves here, and some additional drops in the 50 back and 100 back would help his relay value. However, he is still this class’s top backstroker and a 1:42 as a sophomore is not to be sniffed at.

8. Peter Kovacs — Indiana Swim Club — Bloomington South High School — Bloomington, IN

Best Times:

Kovacs is the top freestyle sprinter in a relatively weak class in that area. He is on the edge of breaking 20 seconds in the 50 free, ranking 2nd in the class with a 20.03, and is the only swimmer under 44 seconds in the 100 free at 43.79.

In the 50, he has eight swims already this season faster than last season’s best of 20.71, and has dropped seven tenths of a second this year. It is a slightly different story in the 100, in which he notched a tiny PB of 44.79 at Winter Juniors East, having ended last season at 44.85, before dropping exactly a second to clock 43.79 at the IHSAA Boys State Championship having been 43.93 in the heats.

Kovacs doesn’t have a ton of relay splits, but has split 43.36 in the 100 free and has a pair of 21.4 50 fly splits to go along with his 48.43 flat start time in the 100 fly. That was a second and a half PB, dropping from 49.93, and he is a solid 54.95 in meters as well.

Back on freestyle, his prowess stretches up to the 200 as he owns a top ten time in the class thanks to a 1:36.12 clocked at Winter Juniors. That was a three second drop, and he had relatively consistent splits on the back half (25.00/25.40). He is 1:53.83 in the meters version of the event, faster than comparable swimmers in yards in this class, so there is some real mid-distance free ability there.

7. Noah Stotler — Bolles School Sharks — Clay High School — Middleburg, FL

Best Times:

Stotler is a two-stroke 200 swimmer, who comes down to a decent level in the 100 of each stroke as well. His best event is the 200 fly, in which he is sub-1:45 to rank third in the class behind Charlie Cancelmo and David Sammons. He has dropped a ton of time in that event this season too, going from 1:50.39 to 1:44.90 and improving on every single swim. His PB shows relatively mature splitting as well at 23.35/26.50/27.25/27.70, which indicates that he should come on in leaps and bounds as his 100 speed improves.

He is just 48.44 in the 100 fly, a 1.31 second drop this season, with five swims under 50 seconds this season but only two under 49.5. Both of those came at the Florida Swimming Senior Champs, where he also set his 200 fly PB. His secondary event is not the 100 fly though, but rather the 200 free where he ranks third in the class. He has hacked more than five seconds off his time this season, going from 1:40.80 to 1:35.43, and has five swims of 1:37.1 or better. A 1:52.02 in the long course 200 at the start of May is a nice touch as well.

A 1.81 second drop in the 100 free this season, where he ranks 11th in the class at 44.67 adds some more potential relay value, but right now his strength is in the 200s.

6. Justin Shi — Eagle Swim Team— McDonagh School — Ellicott City, MD

Best Times:

Shi has fantastic range across almost every stroke, although he is primarily an IM/fly swimmer. His medley times of 1:47.82/3:50.36 rank in the top ten in the class, as do times of 47.89/1:45.72 in fly, and he has solid times in the 200 free and 200 back as well. He has dropped nearly six seconds in the former, clocking 1:37.57 in January, and owns a best of 1:47.84 in the latter. A 3.38 seconds drop in the LCM 200 free already this season could be a sign of things to come in that event.

His 200 fly time of 1:45.72 ranks him 5th in the class, and isn’t too far away from a conference scoring time already. He has hacked off a full six seconds from the 1:51.70 he came into the season with, the majority of which has come on the back half of the race, where he has gone from 58.73 to 54.62. He can definitely go out faster as well, with a best of 47.89 in the 100 fly from the Maryland Senior Champs in February, 2.69 seconds faster than he was at that meet 12 months ago.

Both IM events have seen significant improvements, 3.76 seconds in the 200 IM and 9.26 seconds in the 400 IM, which have been spread across all four strokes. Versatility can be an underrated trait, especially for an IM swimmer where there is slightly more expectation that they can cross over into other strokes, but Shi is nicely positioned to be one of the best all-around swimmers in this class.

5. Wilson York — Lakeside Swim Team — Saint Xavier High School — Louisville, KY

Best Times:

York is a classic breaststroke/IM swimmer, strong across both distances in each stroke and already looking set for a 200 IM/400 IM or 100 breast/200 breast schedule in college.

His breaststroke times are the fastest in the class, and he has the long course swims to back them up. His 1:55.14 from Winter Juniors in the 200 breast is a third of a second faster than the #2 swimmer in the class, and is nearly two seconds faster than Lucas Zardavats’ class-leading time from last year. He has dropped from 1:58.08 in the event this season, and has three swims of 1:56.5 or better including two under 1:56. His 100 is slightly further ahead at 53.56, four tenths of a second clear of Adam Barlow, and that time is a 0.88 second drop for the season. That also came at the SE TNAQ Speedo Southern Premier in March, not at his main taper meet of Winter Juniors.

The IMs are probably areas where his long course swims are ahead of his short course ones. Yards times of 1:46.19 in the 200 and 3:47.72 in the 400 make him one of the top medley swimmers in the class, and he has been 2:02.99 and 4:20.97 in the big pool this season. Both are big drops – four seconds in the 400 IM both in yards and meters, three seconds in the 200 yard IM and three quarters of a second in the LCM 200 IM. There should be time to drop as he improves his other strokes, although he has been 1:48.43 in the 200 fly, fast enough to make it an interesting option if he chooses to swim it.

4. Charlie Cancelmo — Seattle Metropolitan Aquatics Club — Lakeside High School — Seattle, WA

Best Times:

Cancelmo is already a stroke specialist in fly, and has a phenomenal 100-200 punch. His 100 mark of 46.65 is top in the class, as one of only three swimmers under 47, but it is in the 200 that he stands out. He clocked 1:42.00 at the PN BC Premier Invitational in March, over a second faster than anyone else in the class and top-five swim in the 15-16 age group all-time. That is just over a second away from the 1:40.77 it took to make NCAAs this year and would be a solid scoring time at the conference level wherever he decides to go. That is also nearly a five second drop from the 1:46.73 he clocked last season, and he has the long course chops to go with it thanks to a pair of 1:58-point swims, one last July and one this June.

Cancelmo does cross over to other strokes, and will be a beneficiary of the NCAA schedule switching back to a format which allows stroke 200 swimmers to swim the 200 IM. His 200 IM is a strong 1:46.56, a 4.43 second drop, and he has time still to cut on the backstroke leg. His 200 back is a solid 1:46.65, more than a six second drop this season, and he is one of the top 50 backstrokers in the class thanks to a 22.72 leadoff at Winter Juniors West.

His freestyle prowess, with times of 20.53/44.08/1:35.64 in the sprint events, shows the relay value he will bring. Again, those are big drops – four tenths in the 50, a second in the 100, 2.2 seconds in the 200. With a steep improvement curve, a standout event, relay value, and versatility, Cancelmo  is an elite recruit.

3. Syunta Lee — West Coast Aquatics (WA) — Jackson High School — Mill Creek (WA)

Best Times:

Lee is the fastest IM swimmer in the class, and has elite freestyle times from the 200 up to the 1650. He ranks second in the class in the 500 free and the mile, is the fastest swimmer in both IM events, and adds some solid times in the 200 fly, 200 back, and 200 free.

He clocked 3:44.40 in the 400 IM at Winter Juniors West to win by three seconds, marking an eight second drop from his previous best. However, outside of that meet he is yet to break 3:50, clocking 3:52 and 3:51 in March this year. His 200 is a different story, with a 1.13 second drop this season as he clocked 1:45.53 at Winter Juniors, but additional swims of 1:45.84 and 1:46.17 in the months since. All three swims are faster than the next best in this class.

He has had some big drops in freestyle, slicing 22 seconds off his mile time to make him the second-fastest swimmer in the class at 15:06.54, and he clocked that time not at Winter Juniors, but at the Washington State Senior Championships the weekend before Christmas where he won by nearly 40 seconds. His 500 free has improved by four seconds from 4:24.03 to 4:20.01, but in contrast to last season he delivered his best at Winter Juniors – at the 2024 edition he was just 4:30.88. Lee has dropped a couple of seconds in the 200 free as well, from 1:38.40 to 1:36.50, and has one of the fastest LCM times in the class at 1:52.01

A 1:48.36 in the 2000 fly and 1:46.51 in the 200 back indicate potential other avenues of improvement, but his schedule right now looks like it will be some combination of the two distance free events and the two IM events. His mile is already in conference scoring range and not a huge leap away from NCAA qualification, and his IM swims are fantastic for a high school sophomore. A little more consistency in his best events and a continuation of the improvements he has shown in the past 12 months, and he will be an extremely valuable pickup.

2. David Sammons — SwimMAC Carolina — Charlotte Latin High School — Charlotte, NC

Best Times:

Sammons is a phenomenally versatile swimmer, bringing elite times across free, fly, back, and IM. While he does not top the class in any event, he ranks in the top five in a staggering nine events. His 400 IM is the best of the bunch and is already in conference scoring range and within 2% of the 2026 NCAA qualifying time at 3:44.87, and he has dropped nearly five seconds in the event this year from his 2024-25 best of 3:49.65. While his 200 IM has seen just a half-second improvement, a 1:47.17 still ranks highly in the class and recent LCM swims of 2:03.70 in the 200 and 4:20.65 in the 400 indicate that he could be much faster in both events in yards.

He is strong across the 200 fly (1:43.03), 200 back (1:44.16), and 200 free (1:35.37) as well, but doesn’t yet have the sprint speed in the 100s (outside of fly) to be a major relay factor. However, he has had some solid improvements in the 200s this year – 1.69 seconds in the 200 fly, 1.68 seconds in the 200 back, and 1.69 seconds in the 200 free – and that 200 fly, which ranks second in the class behind an all-timer of a swim from Charlie Cancelmo, is the most exciting.

His 100 fly time of 47.43, a 0.77 drop from last season, ranks in the top five in the class and indicates that he should be able to drop time from his current 45.52 in the 100 free.

His recent LCM swims in the 200s also bode well. He clocked 1:57.98 in the 200 fly and 2:01.98 in the 200 back in mid-May, both lifetime bests by over a second. If he can develop his 100 free next season there will be precious little to critique in Sammons’ armoury.

1. Kai Joyner — Rochester Swim Club — Mayo High School — Rochester, MN 

Best Times:

Joyner is an elite freestyler from the 100 all the way up to the mile, and flashes some strong backstroke and IM speed as well. A 14:56.62 in the 1650 free is his standout event, the only one in the class under 15 minutes, and he is less than four seconds off the 14:52.88 it took to qualify for NCAAs this year which makes him the only swimmer in the class currently within 1% of an NCAA qualification time. Distance free is one of the areas we see the biggest improvements at the college level, and with more than two years until he joins the NCAA Joyner has a tremendously high baseline already.

Most impressively, that is a 45 second drop from last season. He was 15:41.26 as a high school freshman, but has absolutely exploded this year. His 1000 free has gone from 9:17 to 8:55, his 500 free from 4:29.74 to 4:17.75, and his 200 free from 1:38.64 to 1:34.91. All three rank top in the class.

Based purely on freestyle he would be among the top recruits in this class, but he is also one of the top 200 backstrokers and 400 IM swimmers. He is 1:45.73 in the former, third in the class, and 3:47.44 in the latter also ranks third.

Almost no one else has his blend of top-end talent and his rapid improvement curve. The one knock, which isn’t really his fault at all, is that there are a ton of good distance freestylers coming into the NCAA over the next couple of years – his mile time is actually the slowest class-leading time since 2022, despite being a sub-15 swimmer as a sophomore. If his improvement curve holds up though (and he’s already dropping PBs in long course), he could prove to be one of the best distance free recruits in recent years.

BONUS LOOKBACK:

Feeling nostalgic? Here’s a look back at our historic recruiting class rankings, plus our retrospectives of those classes after four NCAA seasons:

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