Cael Long '22 Recruiting Profile

         Swimming has been the most natural part of my life as I could navigate water before I could walk, with the help of my two older brothers. After toddling around swim meets, I jumped at the chance to join my two older brothers on the team as soon as I turned four.  Enthusiasm and focused energy helped me win the "Most Valuable Male Swimmer" award at my high school two years in a row, break two school records and achieve the Trumpet Section Pride award in the Marching Band. I have had over fourteen years of local, state, and regional swimming experience as a member of USA Swimming, the Greater Johnstown YMCA Swim Team, and the Westmont Hilltop High School Swim Team.  The mental and physical toughness from practices have helped me develop into the athlete that I am today. 

        My dedication does not stop when I get out of the water. I have challenged myself with a heavy course load of all Honors and AP core coursework for a 98.6238% GPA. In addition, I take Zoom Room live classes within Outschool Online Learning in classes such as “Black History is American History", “Lord of the Rings Trilogy Books and Films” and “Real Pirates in History” to supplement my education. During the COVID-19 crisis, I did not allow myself to become discouraged by the fact that the YMCA, UPJ and IUP’s swimming pools had all closed. With all three pools that I utilize for workouts shut down, I began to run more and train heavily with CrossFit workouts in our backyard with equipment lent to us from our local gym. When I returned to the pool in early June, I found that my daily running and CrossFit had paid off. My interval times were close or even faster than my pre-Covid-19 lockdown swimming sets. With both my brothers having swum four years on a Division II varsity team and my mom having competed on Division I Penn State’s Synchronized Swimming team and currently certified as a USA Swimming Coach, I have the full support of a true swimming family. 

2022 200 freestyle relay split: 4th leg: 50 freestyle relay time: 22.66 on January 19, 2022