Nick Switzer of the Woodberry Forest School has verbally committed to the Virginia Cavaliers. Switzer is a native of Charlottesville, where UVa is located.
“I fell in love with UVA from the first moment I stepped onto grounds,” he said. “UVA is everything I could ever want in a school both for swimming and academics. The team and coaches were super friendly and I look forward to my future as a Cavalier!”
Switzer is a versatile swimmer whose best race is the 100 breaststroke, but has big potential in the 200 IM because of his range.
Best Times in yards:
- 50 free – 21.89
- 100 free – 46.68
- 200 free – 1:44.64
- 100 back – 51.14
- 200 back – 1:51.33
- 100 breast – 56.69
- 200 breast – 2:07.50
- 100 fly – 52.62
- 200 IM – 1:52.88
While Virginia has a lot of needs this fall, and are very much in rebuilding mode after a tumultuous first half of the decade, Switzer fits into one of the biggest holes. The Cavaliers had no A or B finalists at last year’s ACC Championships in the 200 IM, and their only scorer in the 100 breaststroke (Yannick Kaeser – 7th) will be graduated by the time Switzer arrives.
His older brother Zach scored 38 individual points (C-Final scoring) at ACC’s last season representing Virginia Tech. He’s more of a 400 IM’er/backstroker, as compared to Nick who looks like a 200 IM’er/breaststroker going into his senior season of high school.
Switzer says that he feels as though his school’s academic focus means that he still has a lot of potential left in the pool. Woodberry Forest is a boarding school, and his club team is the same as his high school team. Switzer says that the school puts restrictions on how much athletes are allowed to practice, and because his club and high school team are both under the purvey, he doesn’t believe he’s trained as much as many swimmers at his level.
