Stanford Gets Verbal Commitment From Australia’s Leon MacAlister

Photo Courtesy: Leon MacAlister

NEW COMMIT: A native of Castle Cove, New South Wales, Leon MacAlister has given his verbal commitment to Stanford and will make the move from Australia to The Farm next fall.

MacAlister swims for Carlile Swimming Club and most recently competed at the NSW Metropolitan SCM Championships and raced both backstroke events at the Australian Age Group Championships in April. He competed in the 100m back and 100m free at the Hancock Prospecting Australian Trials in February and notched a lifetime best in the latter. He represented Australia at the FINA World Junior Championships last summer where he advanced to the semi-finals in the 50m and 100m back.

He told Swimming World:

“I chose Stanford because it is unparalleled internationally in both academics and sport. It is a place I believe I will flourish as a student-athlete and achieve my goals in and out of the pool. I can’t wait for what’s to come. Go Card!”

In LCM, his best times include:

100m back – 55.77
200m back – 2:02.53
50m free – 23.26
100m free – 50.69
200m free – 1:52.36

In SCY, those times convert to:

100 back – 47.68
200 back – 1:46.47
50 free – 20.23
100 free – 44.25
200 free – 1:38.31

MacAlister will make an immediate impact when he arrives on campus next fall for the 2019-20 season. He will join a sprint training group that includes Alberto Mestre and a backstroke group led by Benjamin Ho. Under head coach Ted Knapp, the Cards finished second at last season’s Pac-12 Championships.

If you have a commitment to share, please send a photo and quote via email to hs@swimmingworld.com.

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Simone Dearle

5 years ago

Ben

Sharon Brian

5 years ago

Katrina Schlicht

5 years ago

Reply to Sharon Brian

Stanford very impressive!