Top 20 NCAA Swimming Recruits In The Girls High School Class of 2023

By Jared Anderson on SwimSwam

It’s that time of year again when we at SwimSwam rank out the top 20 high school swimming prospects in the upcoming NCAA recruiting class.

As college recruiting has reached earlier and earlier into high school classes, we’re continually expanding our recruiting ranks and coverage. Last spring, we ranked out the then-sophomore class. This is essentially a re-rank of that class, taking into account a year of improvements. Stay tuned to our recruiting channel for more additions to our yearly recruiting coverage:

• Girls & boys ranks for current juniors – high school class of 2023 (updated rankings from our “Way Too Early” rankings last spring)
• Way Too Early ranks for current sophomore girls & boys – high school class of 2024
• Re-Rank of outgoing senior girls & boys – high school class of 2022

Further reading:

• Way Too Early NCAA Recruiting Ranks: High School Girls Class of 2023 (as ranked last spring)

So without further ado, let’s take a look at this class as a whole, then review our ranking methodology (please read it before you get upset about how low the top miler is ranked!) and get into our rankings.

2022 addendum: The sport has returned to something a little more resembling normal after two years of the coronavirus pandemic. That said, the pandemic remains the elephant in the room when it comes to ranking these classes. Certainly every athlete on the list has lost out on training and racing opportunities of some kind, and each swimmer in wildly varying amounts. As we can’t reliably quantify whose current portfolio of times is most suppressed by the pandemic years, all we can do is rank based on the in-pool production we’ve seen. But it’s worth noting up-front that this class has a real chance for some big upheaval as swimmers ‘catch up’ from the missed pandemic years.

THIS CLASS

• Incredible distance class
• A bit thin in the sprints
• Still light on fly/back/breast types, but top-end talent is developing
• Lots of fast risers

When we ranked this class as sophomores, we noted that it was still very much a class in development – and wow did a lot of them blow up over their junior seasons. That’s really noticeable in both the top-end talent and the depth.

It’s still a class very centered around distance freestyle, which makes it especially interesting in an NCAA format that favors the value of sprinters. Three of our top five swimmers are distance types, and even the top 50/100 freestyler is arguably better in the 200 than in either of those events.

There’s a clear-cut #1 in the class – when we ranked them as sophomores, Bella Sims was a great age grouper, but in the year since, she’s become a U.S. Olympian and a force on the national stage. It’s no coincidence that this class of distance swimmers has risen up around her.

That’s a contrast to the past few classes, where the elite talents have been more focused on the 100s: Claire Curzan in the class of 2022, Gretchen Walsh in 2021 and Regan Smith in 2020. This class doesn’t have any 100 flyers or backstrokers on that incredible level, but the top-end talent is starting to develop more compared to last year, and it’d be pretty surprising if we didn’t have a 50-point or two in fly or back by next year.

This group as a whole is rising fast, with a lot of huge improvement curves among the top 20 recruits.

**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.

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 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:

• Relay Value – Relay points count double in college swimming, and any program needs a strong stable of quality sprinters to fill out all 5 relays with stars. Obviously, a special distance swimmer can easily rank ahead of a very good 100 freestyler, but college swimming generally values a sprint freestyler over a distance swimmer, all other factors being equal.
• Improvements – Actual times carry the most weight by a longshot. But we also keep an eye on a swimmer’s trajectory, especially in deciding between two swimmers with relatively even times.
• Short Course over Long Course – while every club and every swimmer will have a different balance of focus between short course and long course swimming, the NCAA competes in short course yards, and that’s going to be the main factor considered in these rankings. Long course times are another data point for consideration, but we mainly view them through the lens of what a big long course swim could mean for an athlete’s future in short course.
• NCAA scoring ability – NCAAs are the big show for college teams, so we’ve weighted NCAA scoring potential very highly. Swimmers who already have NCAA scoring times wind up mostly filling out the top our of rankings. Since college athletic directors – and by extension coaches – also place high value on conference championships, scoring ability at conference meets is also a factor in our rankings.
• Relative depth in the NCAA and recruiting class – a wealth of elite depth nationwide in one stroke discipline makes a big difference in what times are considered more valuable in that event. Events rise at different rates in the NCAA, but when one event gets extremely deep and fast at the college level, it makes high school prospects in those events a little less valuable, relatively, with lots of other veteran options. In the same way, a recruiting class stacked with swimmers in butterfly, for example, would make each butterflyer a little less sought-after in the market, with lots of other recruiting options able to provide similar production.

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.

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

Disclaimer: there are a lot of high school seniors 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.

TOP 20 SWIMMERS FROM THE CLASS OF 2023

1. Bella Sims (Previous Rank: #1) – Sandpipers of Nevada – home-schooled – Henderson, NV **Verbally committed to Florida**

Best Times:

• 200 free: 1:42.92 (best in class)
• 500 free: 4:32.13 (best in class)
• 1000 free: 9:31.16 (best in class)
• 1650 free: 15:48.70 (best in class)
• 400 IM: 4:03.67 (best in class)
• 200 IM: 1:54.90 (best in class)
• 100 free: 48.52
• 50 free: 22.74
• 200 back: 1:51.69 (best in class)
• 100 fly: 52.21
• 200 fly: 1:53.91

This time last year, Sims was a rising star. This year, she’s an established star and an Olympic medalist. What hasn’t changed is that Sims profiles as the #1 recruit in this class by a staggeringly wide margin. She’s the best pure distance swimmer in a strong distance class, and carries the best times in the class for the 200, 500, 1000, and 1650 frees. But she’s also got elite versatility, with the class’s best 200 back, 200 IM, and 400 IM times. Sims’ 1:42.9 in the 200 free is the fastest time we’ve seen from a junior prospect in years, comparing pretty well to legends Katie Ledecky (1:42.03 as a junior) and Missy Franklin (1:43.15 as a junior).

Don’t pigeonhole Sims into the distance freestyle, either. Her 400 IM is the fastest time we’ve ever seen from a high school junior. You can check out the competition in our ranking last year of the top high school prospects of the decade.

2. Kiley Wilhelm (Previous Rank: #3) – Life Time Swim Team – Myers Park High School – Charlotte, NC

Best Times:

• 100 fly: 51.07 (best in class)
• 200 fly: 1:52.54 (best in class)
• 200 IM: 1:55.78
• 200 back: 1:52.71
• 100 back: 52.47
• 200 free: 1:45.98
• 100 free: 49.33

Wilhelm claimed the #3 rank on this list last year by virtue of a class-leading 200 back. But she’s had a meteoric rise as a butterflyer over her junior year, dropping from 52.6/1:59.3 to 51.0/1:52.5 – both times are the best in the class. Wilhelm profiles as a classic fly/back combo swimmer, which can be an especially valuable archetype because of the medley relay flexibility they give a college program. Wilhelm also has an outstanding 200 IM, which means she doesn’t necessarily have to pull a 100 fly/100 back double in the college championship meet format to maximize her scoring.

3. Cavan Gormsen(Previous Rank: #4) – Long Island Aquatic Club – Sacred Heart Academy – Wantagh, NY **Verbally committed to Virginia**

Best Times:

• 1650 free: 15:58.97
• 1000 free: 9:35.18
• 500 free: 4:37.90
• 200 free: 1:44.48
• 100 free: 49.20

Gormsen would have been the top distance swimmer in a lot of recruiting classes, and she brings in times that would have made the NCAA’s top 8 in both the mile and the 500 free this year. Gormsen has also improved