Elijah Clements '19 Recruiting Profile

My name is Elijah Clements and i am interested in swimming at the collegiate level. I have been apart of two very different teams since I began swimming competitively at age 10. I started swimming in Albany, Oregon where I grew to become most comfortable swimming free and fly. My freshman year of high school I was on the high school swim team and was also the sprinter for our varsity water polo team. After my freshman year of high school my family relocated to the Portland area where I now attend Horizon Christian High School in Tualatin, Oregon. After considering a couple different club teams I decided to swim for Hillsboro Heat, who has one of the best reputations of producing fast swimmers in Oregon Swimming. Unlike my freshman year of school I am now just club swimming, I chose to focus on swimming and getting fast so I did not join a new water polo team and am not swimming for a high school.

Since joining Hillsboro, I have increased in yardage to an average of 48,000 yards per week. We have 3-hour practices five days a week, and on Saturdays we practice for 4 hours. Within the training time we work on colors, IM, and stroke sets. Our normal training day we usually swim 2 hours 30 minutes to about 3 hours. If we do any dry land it is very minimal, we do lots of body weight exercises and some lifts with dumbbells but we only have dumbbells that go up to 55 pounds. This means we do not do any kind of Olympic lifts, which I think having that opportunity in college will greatly benefit me.

My best three individual events are the 100 fly, 200 fly, and 200 free. My current best times are 51.37sc 57.67lc- 100 fly, 1:53.54- 200 fly, 1:45.85-200 free. The last two years that I have been a part of Hillsboro I have dropped lots of time in each of my best events. In my 100 fly before I joined two years ago I was a 54 high 100 fly then within a year I dropped more than 3 seconds, in long course I entered the year with a 1:00 mid and dropped down to a 57.67 in long course. I went from not having my senior sectional cut to picking up my futures cut. In the 200 fly I had went from a 2:07 low and within a year dropping 10 seconds and going a 1:57 mid and then the next year dropping another 4 seconds going a 1:53.5

While I live 45 minutes away from our practice facility, my commitment to our team and passion to improve is evidenced in the fact that I drive myself each day with promptness, as punctuality is important to me. My personal goals and our team goals encourage me to push myself throughout the season. I love to work within a team and experience the success found in both the individual and team accomplishments.

I would love the opportunity to speak with you regarding my interest in getting more information about your program. Please let me know if I can provide you any additional information about myself. Thank you for your consideration and I look forward to hearing back from you at your convenience.