Ranking the 2025 Men’s NCAA Recruiting Classes: Numbers 13-16

By Sam Blacker on SwimSwam

With the NCAA season around the corner, many people are wondering how their favorite team will do this season, and how teams did in their recruiting. This is the first year that we will not see 5th-year athletes at the NCAA Championships, though there are a few redshirt athletes hanging around, which means the incoming freshmen have more opportunity to make an impact than in years past.

As always, we are ranking the 2025 Division I men’s recruiting classes for this season. We have already posted the honorable mentions, so we are getting started with the ranked teams, where we will be starting at #16 and working our way down to #1. This article will cover #16 to #13.

See Also:

• Men’s 2025 Recruiting Class Rankings: Honorable Mentions
• Individual Recruit Rankings: Boys Final Standings

A few important notes on our rankings:

• The rankings listed are based on our Class of 2025 Re-Rank. “HM” refers to our honorable mentions and “BOTR” refers to our Best of the Rest section for top-tier recruits.
• Like most of our rankings, these placements are subjective. We base our team ranks on a number of factors: prospects’ incoming times are by far the main factor, but we also consider potential upside in the class, class size, relay impact, and team needs. Greater weight is placed on known success in short course yards, so foreign swimmers are slightly devalued based on the difficulty in converting long course times to short course production.
• Transfers are included, though they are weighed less than recruits who arrive with four seasons of eligibility.
• For the full list of all verbally committed athletes, click here. A big thank you to SwimSwam’s own Anne Lepesant for compiling that index – without it, rankings like these would be far less comprehensive.
• Some teams had not released a finalized 2025-26 team roster at the time these articles were published, meaning it’s possible we missed some names. Let us know in the comments below.

Honorable Mentions

• Texas A&M, Wisconsin, Ohio State, Louisville

Best NCAA Swimming and Diving Recruiting Classes: Men’s Class of 2025

#16 Michigan Wolverines

• SwimSwam Ranked Recruits: BOTR Alex Thiesing (KY- free)
• The “Rest”: Luka Mladenovic (Austria – breast/IM), Antoine Sauve (Canada – free), Alexey Glivinskiy (Israel – free/IM), Boldizsar Magda (Hungary – free/back/fly), Antoine Destang (MI – free/fly), Will Siegel (NY – free)

The Wolverines’ incoming group has a heavy international flavor as they look to build on their 2nd-place finish at Big Tens last year. Austria’s Luka Mladenovic looks the most important of the incoming swimmers, as he fills a slight hole on breaststroke and should make the medley relays even more dangerous next year. He has long course bests of 26.72 in the 50, 59.97 in the 100 and 2:10.08 in the 200, all set this season, and split 59.08 on Austria’s medley relay this summer. His converted times are 51.25 in the 100 and 1:51.70, enough to make the ‘B’ finals at NCAAs last year, and he should be an upgrade on Ozan Kalafat for the relays.

Antoine Sauve has had a breakout year, going 48.41 in the 100 free and 1:46.39 in the 200 free at Canadian Trials. Those convert to rapid times of 41.79 and 1:32.31, both of which would have qualified for NCAAs last year, and would make him the prime replacement for Gal Cohen Groumi on Michigan’s relays. Alexey Glivinskiy is also a fantastic freestyler, with similar bests of 48.43/1:47.10, and they should make for a mean 1-2 punch at the conference level and on the 400 and 800 free relays. Glivinskiy also brings an elite 200 IM, with his 1:59.00 from the world championships converting to a 1:42.00, good enough for 6th at least season’s Big Tens. Boldizsár Magda, a versatile sprint free/fly/back swimmer out of Hungary who has split 48.3 on the 100 free before, could be another great addition.

Those four are joined by BOTR recruit Alex Thiesing, Antoine Destang, and Will Siegel, all three-distance freestyle specialists, while Destang brings some 100 fly chops. Thiesing is20.25/43.55/1:34.76 in the sprint freestyles, but set long course bests of 23.25/49.75/1:49.99 to indicate that he could be in for a bit of a breakout this fall. If their international recruits adapt quickly, Michigan brings in a class here that could cement their status as the main challengers to Indiana in the Big Ten.

#15 Harvard Crimson

• SwimSwam Ranked Recruits: #10 William Mulgrew (MA – free)
• The “Rest”: Will Browne (VA – free/fly), Ognjen Pilipovic (Serbia), Maro Miknic (Croatia), Vito Rados (Croatia), Mark Iltsisin (Estonia), Pablo Martinez Palop(Spain), Chase Shipp (CA – diving), Rem Turatbekov (VA – diving)

Harvard is headlined by William Mulgrew, a distance freestyler who recently competed for Team USA at the World Junior Championships and holds a best in the mile that would have qualified for NCAAs this March. He is joined, similarly to Michigan above, by a big group of international swimmers.

Mulgrew was the #10 recruit on our 2025 class rankings thanks to his prowess in the mile, where he holds a best of 14:48.26. That is half a second under the invite time for last year’s NCAAs, and would have been 2nd at last year’s Ivy League championships, behind Ivy League Record holder Noah Millard. Mulgrew would also have placed in the top eight of both the 500 and 100 free, giving Harvard some serious points in events that they had only one swimmer make the top ten in last year, the now-graduated Shane Washart. While he is the big domestic get, equally important in terms of the conference title could be Will Browne, a sprint freestyle specialist from Virginia with bests of 19.95 in the 50 free and 43.32 in the 100. He goes up to 1:36.15 in the 200, and adds some nifty 47.57 speed in the 100 fly and a 1:47.72 in the 200 IM.

Mulgrew has been on a tear in long course, chopping seven seconds from his 1500 time (15:05.97) and six on the 800 (7:51.99), and it is in that pool that the majority of the Crimson’s incomings have proven themselves. They bring in five international recruits, with a focus on freestyle. Spain’s Pablo Martinez should be a great training partner for Mulgrew and is 15:22 in the 1500, while Estonia’s Mark Iltsisin is 8:12.97 in the 800 and 3:57.74 in the 400, along with a 4:30 400 IM. Ognjen Pilipovic and Maro Miknic are both free fly specialists, and Miknic could be the best of the lot with his time of 52.49 in the 100 fly, converting to a 45.91 that would have placed 4th at Ivies last year, along with 22.64/50.27 freestyle speed. Vito Rados shores up the breaststroke group with bests of 1:02.51 in the 100 and 2:18.80 in the 200.

A pair of divers completes this class, and both USA National teamer Chase Shipp and Kyrgyzstani diver Rem Turatbekov, who placed in the top three at the Virginia State championships the last two years, look like good recruits who should pick up some points at the conference level.

Harvard, which fell to second at Ivies last year as it had their seven-year winning streak snapped by Princeton, has loaded up this year. They may not quite reclaim their conference crown, but it certainly won’t be due to their incoming class if they don’t. Mulgrew’s ability to compete on the national level, and the shot in the arm their relays will get make this a well-rounded and impactful recruiting class from the Crimson.

#14 U.S. Naval Academy Midshipmen

• SwimSwam Ranked Recruits: #17 Xavier Sohovich (FL – free), BOTR Chase Maier (IL – free) , BOTR Preston Kessler (PA – free)
• The “Rest”: Jaiden Sreenivasan (WA – free/IM), Zach Arnold (NY – free/IM), Joshua Lopez (MD – free/fly), Luke Lamb (PA – free/back), Alex Park (AL – fly), Charlie Greenwood (VA – fly/IM), Kyle Dowe (AZ – IM), Andrejs Brooks (MD – fly), Kai Funaro (TX – free), Sebastien de Fabrique (CA – free), Martin Perecinsky (Ohio State transfer – free/back)

Navy bring in a big class featuring three high-quality recruits in Xavier Sohovich, Preston Kessler and Chase Maier, as they look to reclaim their Patriot League title from Army. Sohovich soared up into the top-20 recruits this year after some huge drops across the 100/200/500 freestyles, and Kessler (sprint free) and Maier (distance free) give them stars across the whole distance range.

Those three would all have won a Patriot League title with their best times. Sohovich comes in with times in the 200 free (1:34.66) and 500 free (4:15.46) that would have won those events last year, along with a top-three time in the 100 (43.68), while Kessler, a quintessential 50/100 freestyler, would have won the 100 (43.28) and placed 4th in the 50 (19.82). Both should slot straight onto the relays as well – Sohovich has split 19.7/42.9/1:33.9 . Maier brings 44.08/1:35.91/4:17.60/15:09.69 speed across freestyle, already fast enough to win both the 500 and 1650 free at conference level, and quick enough to be part of Navy’s 400 and 800 free relays. Those three alone would be a game-changing class, but they are joined by Jaiden Sreenivasan (free/IM), Joshua Lopez (free/fly), Luke Lamb (free/back), Charlie Greenwood (fly/IM) and Andrejs Brooks (fly), who would all have made conference ‘A’ finals last year. 

Alex Park (fly), Kai Funaro (free), and Kyle Dowe (IM) add even more depth around them, and this is a class to contend with. They may not be in the same place to make an impact on the national stage as some of the Power Four classes will, but they add a huge amount of depth, a potential NCAA qualifier in Sohovich, and some likely conference champions. Army’s reign at the top of the conference looks like it will be a short one.

Navy also adds Slovakian Martin Perecinsky as a transfer from Ohio State, who comes in with three years of eligibility. Last season as a freshman, he set best times in the 200 free (1:35.83) and 500 free (4:19.82) at the Big Ten Championships, placing 21st in both, and he then set a new PB of 1:42.22 in the 200 back at the CSCAA National Invitational Championships. He’ll be a contender for a Patriot League title right away in both freestyle events and a podium threat in the 200 back, where teammate Ben Irwin will be the big favorite to repeat after he won last year as a freshman in 1:40.04.

#13 Princeton Tigers

• SwimSwam Ranked Recruits: BOTR Alex Townsend (NC – fly/IM), BOTR Jiarui Xue (MN – free/IM), BOTR John Rusnock (CT – fly/IM), BOTR Keian Lam (IL – breast/IM), #7 Chase Sorosky (AZ – diving)
• The “Rest”: Jack Haley (CT – fly/IM), Jake Tarara (IN – free), Cole Kawaja (CA – free), Oliver Rowe (TX – free/fly), Luka Martinovic (Croatia – diving)

Princeton, one year on from snatching the Ivy League crown from Harvard, look primed to defend this year after bringing in a huge class. They graduated just 195.5 of their 1330 conference points from last season, and bring in multiple freshmen already in scoring range at Ivies.

They are headlined by no fewer than four BOTR recruits, all of whom bring IM prowess in addition to their stroke specialism. Alex Townsend may well be the best of those four, with 46.7/1:45.3 speed on fly alongside a 1:45.94 200 IM, but is matched almost exactly by John Rusnock, who is also 1:45.94 in the 200 IM as well as 47.4/1:45.3 on fly. Both would have made the ‘B’ final in the 200 IM and 200 fly last year at the Ivy League Championships, and Townsend would have been an ‘A’ finalist in the 100 fly to boot. However, the incoming freshman who would have scored highest at those championships was distance freestyler Jiarui Xue, who would have taken home 60+ points across the 500, 1000 and 1650 free. He has best times of 4:20.54 in the 500, 9:05.99 in the 1000 and 15:06.71 in the mile.

Keian Lam would also be a three-event scorer across breaststroke and IM, and has bests of 53.70/1:57.79 on breaststroke that rank 3rd and 2nd on the team, respectively. Oliver Rowe will shore up the mid-distance freestyle and butterfly groups, as will Jack Haley, who also adds 1:48/3:51 IM speed. Jake Tarara is 20.0/43.9 on the 50/100 free, and should be fighting for a relay spot.

The Tigers also bring in a pair of elite divers, just in case the swimmers alone were somehow not enough. Chase Sorosky was the #7 recruit in our diving rankings, and they also bring in 2024 World Junior bronze medalist Luka Martinovic, who placed 16th on the 3-meter at senior worlds in Singapore this year. Sorosky is the Arizona state record holder in the 1-meter event, demolishing the old mark by over 100 points, and is a 10-time Junior National finalist.

Their big loss from last season was Tyler Hong, who made the ‘A’ final in the 100/200 back and 200 IM. They don’t bring in a backstroker to replace him, but have strengthened in just about every other area. They may still be a work in progress at the NCAA level, but this is a high-quality group that should make a splash at the conference level, and improve the Tigers’ hopes of scoring on the big stage.

Read the full story on SwimSwam: Ranking The 2025 Men’s NCAA Recruiting Classes: #13-16