NEW COMMIT: Daleville, Va. native and high school junior Olivia Bray has announced her verbal commitment to Texas and will join the Longhorns in the fall of 2020. Bray is a member of the USA National Junior Team.
Bray does her club swimming with the Virginia Gators under head coach Doug Fonder and owns the Junior National – or faster – standard in 10 events, including a trio of U.S. Open cuts. She’s coming off an extremely successful Winter Nationals meet, where she finished second in the 100 fly (58.55) to move herself up to third all-time in the 17-18 age group. The USA Swimming Scholastic All-American also finished second in the 200 fly and posted an additional pair of top-18 finishes.
Bray raced to three lifetime bests at Nationals this past summer where her highest finish was an 11th-place showing in the 50m fly. She was a seven-time champion at ISCA Summer Senior Championships in July and won five events at ISCA Junior Nationals in March. Currently a junior at Lord Botetourt School, she won the 100 fly and was the 100 free runner-up at the Virginia 3A State Championships during her sophomore season.
She told Swimming World:
“I am so thrilled and honored to announce my verbal commitment to further my academic and swimming career at the University of Texas! Thank you to my family, friends, and coaches who have supported me and helped me to get where I am today!! I cannot wait to train with such an amazing team and under a great coaching staff!! #hookem”
Her best times include:
- 50 free – 22.73
- 100 free – 49.20
- 200 free – 1:46.37
- 500 free – 4:52.02
- 100 back – 52.02
- 200 back – 1:54.26
- 100 fly – 51.38
- 200 fly – 1:53.85
- 200 IM – 1:58.56
- 400 IM – 4:19.64
When she suits up for the Longhorns at the start of the 2020-21 season, Bray will make an immediate impact and is only .08 seconds off of Olympian Kathleen Hersey 100 fly program record. Event with 1.5 years of club swimming still to go before arriving in Austin, Bray’s best times would’ve won both fly events at the 2018 Big 12 Championships where Texas won their sixth-straight conference title. Bray also would’ve scored in the A-final of the 100 fly at NCAAs last year, as well as the B-final of the 200 fly.
If you have a commitment to share, please send a photo and quote via email to hs@swimmingworld.com.
She already posted this – why are we seeing this again …..just to boast about her new times …..