Emma Reed '20 Recruiting Profile

     Swimming competitively has developed me into the hard working, goal oriented, determined person I am today. I started swimming at the age of five because I loved the water and was following my brothers’ footsteps. I learned to swim all four competitive strokes, and improved my strokes with practice.  I listened to my coaches and worked hard at each practice. Throughout my early years of swimming, I sometimes dropped time, but I never achieved the cut times that would take me to a higher-level championship swim meet. As I watched my teammates drop time and qualify to swim at these championship meets, I would wondered how they achieved these accomplishments, and I could not. While gifted with a strong work ethic, I was not gifted with the natural talent in swimming that they had. I had to work for everything I earned, and success did not come as often as it did for my fellow teammates. However, that did not stop me. I was determined to figure out what it would take to improve my swimming abilities in order to qualify for a district and/or state level meet. Through observing successful swimmers and collaborating with my coaching staff, I learned that working towards a goal takes a holistic approach and a great deal of discipline and sacrifice. Listening to, taking in, and doing what the coaches say to improve my stroke technique during swim practice is the key to swimming faster. Improving my stroke technique requires repetition. Not just making the change for one set, but for every set. Changing the way I always swim was not easy, but I decided I must do this to obtain my swimming goal of qualifying for a higher-level championship meet. I also realized that I needed to make the intervals even when I was hurting and ready to give up. Pushing through training discomfort and fatigue is so important not only to build physical endurance but also mental endurance. Lastly, through my mother’s persistence, feeding my body with the right nutrients, hydrating daily, and taking in the right amount of recovery nutrients post workout became a part of my everyday life. I cannot say I was always happy when my mom kept pushing to change my diet including more water, protein, spinach, fruits and vegetable, red beet juice, and tart cherry juice when my muscles were sore. It was embarrassing when my peers would say your mom packed you leaves in your lunch referring to the sandwich bag filled with spinach she insisted I eat every day. While they had a sandwich, chips, tasty cakes, and ice tea. I had spinach, cucumbers or peppers, fruit, water, and a sandwich. When my friends were drinking soda after school, I was drinking a small mug of red beet juice that, for the record, takes a long time to acquire a taste for. I learned over time that I felt better when I ate better, and this showed in my swimming performance. I accepted the discipline and sacrifice to eat healthy even when my peers were not. Lastly, believing in yourself, focusing on the positives, using disappointments as a learning experience, stopping the “what if” and comparing myself to others, and avoiding overthinking on race day became my hardest challenge to overcome. In fact, my mental game is a constant battle for me that I continue to work to improve on. With all this said, this holistic approach requires patience and perseverance, and for the longest time I wondered if, it was ever going to pay off.

     All of the hard work started to pay off beginning with the USA Swimming meet at Cumberland Valley Natatorium in 2016. Something just clicked, and I swam amazingly well dropping huge amounts of time in each event I swam, making it back to finals each night. This was the first time this happened, and to top it off I was less than a second off the Junior Olympic cut time in the 200-yard Backstroke with another chance to swim this event at the next USA Swimming meet. Hard work was paying off, and I was closer to achieving my goal.  I obtained the 200-yard Backstroke Junior Olympic cut time at the 2017 PV USA Swimming IM Xtreme Games. It was a dream of mine to make Junior Olympics before I turned 15, and I did it. From this moment on, I was not that average swimmer that never made the cut to swim at a higher-level championship swim meet. I qualified to swim at Silver Champs, Senior Champs, and Mid-Atlantic Zones in 2017. I swam some of my fastest time in the year 2017.

     Moving onto high school swimming, I continued to work hard. Sometimes, I swam as fast, faster, and sometimes slower than I did in 2017. I often was frustrated when I could not seem to swim faster than I did in 2017 in certain events. I contributed my mental game as the biggest contributing factor in not dropping time in addition to technique slipping and/or slow turns. The determined, driven person that I am, I wanted to take the podium, break a meet record, and make states. I reviewed my current training plan and decided to add mental training and private lessons to my plan. I would listen to Alan Goldberg’s mental training tapes, and I took private lessons with Kirsten Kenyon, one of my coaches, to improve my stroke techniques, turns, and starts. I took the podium my freshman, sophomore, and junior years at the Mid Penn Plunge. In addition, I broke the 100-yard Backstroke Meet Record at the 2018 Mid Penn Plunge. The following year at this same meet, I swam the 100-yard Backstroke again dropping over a second taking first place and breaking my own record, I set the year before. I qualified to swim in the PIAA District III M & T Bank Swimming Championship Meet my first three years in high school placing 14^th and 16^th in my two events my freshman year, 11^th and 15^th my sophomore year despite swimming sick, and 10^th and 11^th my junior year. This year my goal is to place in the top eight at districts with the hopes of making it to states in the 100-yard backstroke.

      These accomplishments not only proved to me that hard work does indeed pay off, but with a positive mental game, you can accomplish anything. Achieving my swimming goals did not come easy, and it took hard work, sacrifice, and holistic training. I have to stick to the holistic training plan mentioned above and work extremely hard. Sometimes, I am successful, and sometimes I fall short of meeting my goals. However, one thing is true; I have learned that hard work, determination, discipline, sacrifice, and holistic training with a positive mental game are the ingredients needed to obtain my goals.         

     Not only am I hard working, goal oriented, and determined in my swimming, but also in my academics. I am ranked second in my class of 111 students. I am tenths away from the valedictorian position.  I am working hard and striving to become the valedictorian of my class. While this is a difficult feet, I will not give up. I am taking three Advanced Placement classes in addition to Calculus and an online college course at Harrisburg Area Community College. I am hoping that with this vigorous schedule and earning the highest percentage grades by the third semester when they run the class rank reports, I hope to have obtained this goal. I put as much work into my academics as I do my swimming. Hard work with the determination to perform the best that I can makes up who I am. In addition to swimming and academics, I am involved in the National Honors Society, Student Council, Principal Advisory Committee, and various other clubs at my high school.  I am an active participant in organizing and running the Four Diamond Mini Thon each year raising money to benefit the Four Diamond Fund at the Penn State Hershey Medical Center, providing research and financial assistance to families with a child being treated for cancer.

     As I am preparing for college, my primary focus will be my academics and choosing a college that has a Pre-Veterinary Medicine and/or Animal Science major. I currently am able to manage a vigorous course load while attending practice two hours and 15 minutes each night (dry-land and swim practice). With that said, I would love to swim in college as well. Although, the colleges and university that have Pre-Veterinary Medicine programs are Division