2015 North Carolina High School 4A State Champion in the 100 backstroke, Tyler Silver, has given his verbal commitment to swim for the Florida Gators.
Swimming for Athens Drive High School, Silver swam a 50.27 in the 100 back A final to edge 2nd place finisher Nathan Murray by just four hundredths. In addition to his state title, Silver nabbed a 6th place finish in the 100 fly (51.38/51.36 prelims) and led off Athens Drive’s 6th place 200 medley relay. He also swam on their 10th place 200 free relay.
The 2-time USA Swimming Scholastic All-American trains and competes at the club level with the Marlins of Raleigh Swim Team. Below is a look at his best times (LCM in parentheses):
- 50 back – 23.00 (27.72)
- 100 back – 49.18 (58.91)
- 200 back – 1:47.92 (2:08.76)
- 100 fly – 50.04 (58.19)
He has Winter Nationals cuts in the 100 and 200 yard backstrokes, while his meters times qualify him for Winter Juniors. All of his personal bests were swum in the year 2015.
Silver isn’t yet ready to score on his own at the SEC level, but he’s going to add more depth to the Florida backstroke group. He has very similar times to fellow 2020 commit Taylor Delk, who goes 49.27 and 1:46.40 in the 100 and 200, respectively. The two of them are not far from scoring in the 200 back– it took a 1:45 mid to make it back to the C final last year at the SEC Championships, where they score down to 24th place. Right now it looks like that event is at least Silver’s best bet (Delk has the times right now to score in the mile) to rack up some points for the Gators.
“I really enjoyed all of my recruiting trips. Each school had great coaches and welcoming swimmers. Florida was the best fit for me and I know the coaching staff can help me be the best swimmer possible and help me grow as a young man as well. I’m looking forward to now training hard this year and then working with my new coaches and teammates at UF in the fall. Go Gators!”
Silver makes his verbal during a flurry of recent Florida commitments: also joining him in head coach Gregg Troy‘s class of 2020 is world junior record holder Maxime Rooney, World Junior Champs finalist Chandler Bray, distance specialists Delk and Drew Clark, breaststroker Marco Guarente, and in-state diver Alex Farrow.
Great pick up for the Gators! Go Tyler!