Zephra Blake '23 Recruiting Profile

My first time in a pool came very early in my life at six months old. Since then, I’ve always loved the water. Swimming is a huge part of my life, and I want to compete on a team in college. One of my favorite things about this sport is the connections you build. At swim camps over the past six years I became good friends with people I’d only known for three days. My teammates are like family to me, and I’ve always been close to my coaches. I love how supportive the swim community is of each other. Swimmers are always cheering each other on, and are quick to congratulate on good times. I hope that I can continue building these connections on a college team. I think encouragement from my coaches has shaped my career in a big way. Without that support, I don’t drop from 1:13.54 to 1:05.65 in my 100 breast in a year, or 2:36.41 to 2:28.02 in my 200 breast in the same time frame. I also think I’ve improved a lot on my 400 IM,  going from 5:11.66 to 4:45.20. I am a lot more motivated than I was in the past, and I’ve gotten a lot stronger, because I’m lucky to share the pool with teammates who know how to have fun while still training hard. This is my second year of high school swimming, as I made the varsity team as freshman. I am definitely looking forward to this year’s season and seeing how much I can improve.

However, I am not only hoping to swim in college. I also hope to find a school that challenges me academically. Currently, I am on the Principal’s Honor Roll while in both accelerated and honors classes. I hope to continue these good grades in college. I am deeply interested in engineering and I want to pursue that interest further in college. I am excited to be able to build models and do labs in person, not just read books and articles about it. I see college as an opportunity to grow more as a person, where I can meet people with very different experiences from mine, and learn from both them and my coaches. I have the drive and humility to be a good student-athlete and I am excited for a future with a great school. This is what I train and study every day to be prepared for.