Owen Stender '21 Recruiting Profile

Throughout my high school career I have strove to be both an excellent student and athlete, which I believe my accomplishments prove. My freshman year I qualified for the state meet and finished 10th overall in the 100 breaststroke shaving time off with each race. My final breaststroke race at the state meet as a freshman I swam 1.00.56 My sophomore year I qualified for the 100 breaststroke again and was put on my team's 200 medley relay team to swim the breaststroke leg. My result as a sophomore at the state meet was second place with a time of 0.58.63 missing first place by a tenth of a second. My preliminary time that year was actually faster than my final with a time of 0.57.79.  You can imagine how missing first place by a tenth of a second motivated me. Finally, my junior year I was the Southwestern and Central Michigan Conference champion achieving a 0.59.59 in the breaststroke without shaving, tapering, or suiting. My coach and I were expecting me to go around a mid to low 0.56 in the breaststroke before the state meet was cancelled due to Covid-19.  During my high school seasons I have been able to maintain a 3.9 GPA and have developed an interest in business, which is what I believe I would like to continue to study in college.

The question is, what is behind my success and continuous improvement? The answer is my love of swimming and competition. The Covid-19 pandemic took away my opportunity to succeed at the state meet as junior, and it is certainly interrupting my senior year season as well, but one thing this pandemic has made clear to me is that I love to swim, and I love to compete and I don't want that to end with my high school career. I have more to prove, more to contribute, more drive to give, more success to realize. My motivation to achieve success has not been blunted by the setback of this pandemic, rather it has filled me with a hunger for more. I want to find the heights I can reach not only in the breaststroke but in the freestyle as well. I know I can be an asset to a college team, because I have more to prove and more of myself to give to this great sport.