Cequyia York '23 Recruiting Profile

My name is Cequyia York. My love for sports, the arts, and particularly swimming came at a very young age when my parents discovered that I was both academically and athletically talented. Starting at the age of four, I started participating in basketball, gymnastics, volleyball, music lessons, cheerleading, and swimming. However, I took to swimming the first time I hit the water and swam the whole length of the pool without stopping. At the age of five, swimming became my passion when I started swimming for the Mobile County Summer League, where I was the age-group high point winner three years in a row. Around this same time, I started my year-round USA swimming career and haven’t looked back since. I began to gain more knowledge of swimming while competing on the USA swim circuit, not only in my LSC but also around the country. This is when I began defining my ambitions and realized the importance of swim practice, training, and using each swim meet as an opportunity to improve my strokes and technique. I began to set goals to achieve my LSC’s championship cut times and then moved on to attaining zones and futures time standards. I am currently striving to gain NCAA D1 and Olympic Trials time standards.

A couple of highlights from my sports career was being selected to the Davidson High School Varsity Track and Swim team as a 7th-grade middle schooler. I was also chosen to be a part of the 13-14 age group SES Zones Select Team, where I joined swimmers from other teams in my LSC to form a team. These experiences allowed me to grow in my leadership and team-building skills. I enjoyed the many new friendships that I made that I still cherish to this day. Also, during this period, I learned to be more adaptable/flexible to many different coaching styles from working through my age group coaches, senior-level coaches, high-school coaches, and my select zone coaches. 

I am committed to continuing swimming at the collegiate level while fulfilling my academic goals.  I plan on studying in the humanities and liberal arts spectrum, with hopes of studying abroad upon graduation. With that being said, I am looking for a program that will challenge me academically and will push me to be the best that I can be. After years of training to swim competitively, I have grown to be a disciplined team player and a leader in empowering my team to strive to be the best and myself. I wouldn’t feel complete without swimming in college, as it had been a significant factor in who I am today. 

Thanks!