OT-Qualifying Backstroker Braxton Flowers Will Be A Longhorn

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After getting their first commitment recently from defending Texas 5A Champ in the 200 and 500 free, Sam Kline, the Texas Longhorns have received a verbal from Cypress Fairbanks Swim Club backstroker Braxton Flowers.

Flowers is a great backstroker who also swims sprint freestyle, and his 200 back will be a big addition to the Texas roster.

Flowers’ Top Times

• 100 back – 48.21/56.36
• 200 back – 1:43.42/2:01.12
• 100 free – 45.73/52.44
• 200 free – 1:40.66/1:52.91

In both backstrokes, Flowers holds Olympic Trials cuts (the 200 by over 2.5 seconds). He recently finished up 37th in the 100 back prelims at US Nationals, and got pulled into the C final for 18& unders, where he touched 24th overall. He was also 62nd in the 200 back, though for perspective, his best time of 2:01.12 would’ve earned him a C final spot (even without eliminating swimmers too old for that final).

Flowers would’ve been Texas’ 3rd-best 200 backstroker last season, behind only sophomores Jack Conger and Will Glass. The Longhorns have added monster freshmen backstrokers Ryan Harty (1:40) and John Shebat (1:42) for this season, so Flowers will have plenty of options for training partners when he gets to Austin. The Longhorns already have a scary good backstroke group (they got nothin’ on the fly group, though) and Flowers will only add high-caliber depth to the program. He’s over three seconds under the NCAA ‘B’ qualifying standard, though he’s a little over a second off of what qualified for NCAAs last season. Flowers and Sam Kline make up the next class of Texas Longhorns thus far in the recruiting process.

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