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USA Swimming Scholastic All-American Zachary Erb has announced his commitment to West Virginia University, beginning fall of 2023. Erb is homeschooled, but trains and competes year-round with the Virginia Gators in Harrisonburg, Virginia.
“I’m very excited to announce my commitment to West Virginia University! This wouldn’t have been achievable without teammates, family, my coaches, and God. Thank you to everyone who’s pushed me to becoming the athlete I am today, and I look forward to continuing my swimming and academic career with a new team and staff! Go Mountaineers!”
Erb is a breaststroke and IM specialist, and owns U.S. Open qualifying times in the 100m and 200m breaststroke. He notched both of those time standards this past summer at the Virginia Long Course Senior Championships, where he won the 200 breast and picked up 2nd in the 100 breast. Over the course of last summer, Erb dropped a total of 8 seconds in the 200 and 3 seconds in the 100.
His improvements have also carried into the IM events this fall. At Winter Juniors – East, Erb improved his 400 IM time by nearly 6 seconds for a 54th place finish. He also shaved a few tenths off of his best 200 IM time to earn 59th overall.
Top SCY Times:
- 100 breast – 56.17
- 200 breast – 2:02.76
- 200 IM – 1:51.41
- 400 IM – 4:01.51
West Virginia recently finished 3rd out of 3 teams at the 2023 Big-12 Swimming and Diving Conference Championships. Erb would have been the program’s 3rd-fastest performer in the 400 IM this year. The Mountaineers were led by Danny Berlitz, who finished 5th at Big 12s with a time of 3:46.88. Jonathan Bennett swam the event exhibition at conference and clocked a 3:56.94. Berlitz will overlap with Erb for a year, while Bennett will have graduated.
Erb would have been the team’s 6th-fastest in both the 200 breaststroke and 100 breaststroke this year. Berlitz was also the top performer in the 200 breast with a 1:56.76, while junior Joe Schaefer had the fastest 100 breast at 53.71. Schaefer will also be around for a year to train with Erb.
Erb joins Parker Sterlitz, Preston Bennett, Trevor Hudson, and Peter Horan in the Mountaineers’ class of 2027. Sterlitz, Hudson, and Bennett are all freestyle specialists, while Horan focuses more on backstroke.
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