- Winter 2010
Personal Statement
HI! I am very interested in continuing my swimming in college. I hit a big personal goal in November last year when I achieved my first junior nationals cut in winning the Iowa State High School 200 IM championship. I also was second in the 100 backstroke. I'm looking forward to high school swimming this fall. My goal is to break the state record in the 200 IM next year.
I have been swimming year round for years. I was born in California and my triplet brothers and I started swimming in the 6 and under age group. We moved to a small town, Decorah, IA, where my parents were from, when I was 7. My brothers and I swam for a USA club team in Dubuque, IA, but its 80 miles from here, so I've mostly trained with a small group here in Decorah and then join the USA team, Dubuque Area Swimming Hurricanes, at meets. We don't really have an official coach here in Decorah, but get help from one of the parents of a swimmer that swam in college. He writes our workouts.
I've won a lot of individual age group championships here in Iowa. At age 14, I was the high point long course and short course champion and Iowa Outstanding Swimmer of the Year. Currently, I have several sectional cuts and a junior national cut in the 200 IM. I feel I can continue to improve this year as I have added a more strenuous dry land training program. I had done very little strength training before this summer. Its fun and I can tell I have more power. I missed my taper a bit for the sectional meet recently, but a week later at the ISI state summer championships, I had time drops in all my events and can really tell the strength training helped. My fly especially improved. I actually won the 100 fly, which I almost never swim. I'm really looking forward to my last year of HS swimming. I know I have time drops ahead!
I love swimming and feel it makes me an all around stronger, happier and more confident person. This past year,my Decorah High School team finished sixth at state. I was the first girl's swimming state champion at Decorah High School. I was voted the most valuable swimmer and also got the spirit award from my teamates. There's only one class in Iowa swimming and we're one of the smallest schools, so we we're proud of our accomplishment. I work hard in school, too. I have a 3.967 GPA right now and a 24 on my first try at the ACTs. My interests include fashion, graphic design, and photography. I hope to combine all these interests in my future studies. My goals as a college swimmer are to reach my full potential. I feel with more consistent coaching and increased strength training, I can be very successful as a college swimmer.
