Zachary Wheeler '22 Recruiting Profile

Growing up I’ve tried quite a few sports, but the one that stuck with me was swimming. Since I was 5, swimming has played a huge part of my life and who I am as a person. My sister first joined the swim team and encouraged me to do the same since my mom used to swim in her high school days. I’ve stayed on the same club team for eleven years and still love the atmosphere and the friends I’ve made growing up on it. Since then, it’s helped me learn a lot about myself as a person and my goals for college and beyond. I’ve always loved everything about the sport, even the 5 AM morning practices and hard workouts, as well as the friendly competition it brings, pushing both my friends and I to work harder. Swimming has helped me become a very team-oriented person. I look forward to supporting my teammates at meets and them doing the same for me. The friends I have made as well as the team as a whole have become like a second family, both for club swim and my high school team. Another aspect of swimming I love is the growth, not only in terms of speed but also personal development. I always push myself to the limit and set high goals for the future, knowing that with hard work I can achieve them. It’s the satisfaction that I get after making a cut or a personal best, or even just feeling good about how I swam that gives me the thrill that I desire so much from this sport. Making it to higher levels, faster times and new time standards push me harder and harder to set new goals and do everything I can to achieve them. Swimming can also be a good escape from school and other stressful things I have going on in my life, the pool is my safe place. As I’ve grown as a person, swimming has always been there as an outlet for me to express myself. Swimming in high school has helped me become even more team oriented and invested in something bigger than myself. Academically, I always try to set high goals and achieve good grades to get into a great college. Pushing myself both in the pool and in the classroom are very important to me. Holding myself accountable has been crucial in getting where I am today. Continuing to swim in college has been a dream of mine for as long as I remember.