Madeline Golier '23 Recruiting Profile

I am from a small town in Western PA.   There are no year-round options  to swim where I live, choices are limited to the winter season only.  As a freshman, I was the first female from my high school to make it to the PIAA State Championships in over 15 years.  When we arrived at Bucknell University on a fateful March morning, I could see the swimmers from the 3-A class swimming through the windows.  Excitedly, I walked to the check-in area.  I was waiting in line with my coach and chatting with swimmers from other teams in our district, when a gentleman stood up and announced that the championships were suspended, effective immediately due to the global outbreak of Covid-19.  It was crushing news.

My sophomore season was different.  We were in and out of the pool depending on school closures, and classmates and teammates being quarantined.  I swam that year with the anticipation that the season would end like the year before. We made it to the district meet, but I didn't feel prepared.  I didn’t have the 200 IM race that I wanted to have.  Though let down, I made it to the state championships again in the 200 Free relay and 200 Medley relay with my teammates.  I finally got to swim, while my family and friends watched at home and work from their computers.  The season ended, and I gave myself a few weeks to reflect on my high school career, now half over.  What did I want?  Where did I want to go?  How was I going to get there?

Swimming is my passion.  I had some setbacks during the last couple years, and I let myself get down.  Now it was time to take my future into my own hands.  I knew that I needed to find a program that could take me to the next level, and a coach that would push me harder than I have been pushed both mentally and physically.  I enlisted my family for their support and help.  We found a team in Pittsburgh with an incredible coach and some amazing athletes.  I committed to giving it my all, my family committed to supporting me.  

During the week, I would stay with my grandparents, and on the weekends my parents would take me to meets and practices.  My passion for swimming was reignited, and I was surrounded by swimmers that shared the same goals, and  coaches that pushed me every practice.  

I am still training with my club team in Pittsburgh, and traveling after school and on weekends until my high school season starts.  I have never had training or coaching like this before.  Butterfly, backstroke, and IM have always been my strongest events, but this summer my coach focused my training on freestyle, both sprint and long distance.  In a pre-season meet this fall, I had huge drops in my 200 free and 500 free.  I feel like a whole new world of swimming has opened up to me and I am just getting started (again!)

I have always wanted to swim in college.  I am confident that I can handle the academic and athletic rigors that will come with it.  I am in my third year of taking multiple AP classes and all honors classes while active and serving in leadership positions with Youth and Government, DECA, and National Honor Society.  I have had my artwork published locally, and just started teaching myself  how to play the guitar.