Millfield School swimmer Daniel Speers has verbally committed to Notre Dame, giving the Irish men their first public verbal commitment in the class of 2015.
“I chose ND because I felt that the enthusiasm of the coaching staff really rubbed off on the whole team and created a great atmosphere,” Speers said “and that coupled with the academic reputation of the school made it a perfect fit!”
Speers is a sprint freestyler, from a well-known sprint program, with long course meters bests of 23.27 and 51.70, respectively, in the 50 and 100 freestyles, both of which were done a month ago in August at the Youth & Multi-Class Open Championships in Sheffield.
Those times convert to 20.24 and 45.13, respectively, in yards. Those converted times line up well against those of any returning Notre Dame sprinters this season, including the program’s top returning sprinter sophomore Trent Jackson.
Speers was the 50 free champion for 17/18’s at the British Youth Championships this past summer, and in total took almost two seconds off of his lifetime best in the 100 free over the last year.
Speers’ size has to excite Notre Dame coaches too – he weighs just 160 pounds, showing that there’s plenty of room still to fill out his 6’5″ frame.
Speers comes from a Milfield program that has an impressive resume of swimmers in its history, including freestylers. Among those who have ties to Millfield include James Guy, James Disney-May, Robert Holderness, Danielle Lowe, Lorna Tonks, and Olympic Champions Duncan Goodhew and Mark Foster.
Notre Dame, who has a new head coach this year Matt Tallman, doesn’t have a ton of international swimmers, but they do have a few. That includes Bogdac Ayhan from Turkey (via London), Jack Cobain from Ireland, and Nicholas Sim from Singarpore on their 2014-2015 roster.
