What grade are you in?

 I am a senior here at Grandview.

 What made you start swimming?

I honestly started swimming because it was the only thing I was good at when I was younger. I picked up the sport, started making some leaps and bounds, and decided it was what I wanted to stick with. 

How long have you been swimming?

 I started swimming on a summer community club team at the age of seven.

 Why do you think you’ve been doing it for so long?

I kind of fell in love with it because it’s unique to itself. It’s not something that you can replicate in many other sports. It’s an individual sport where you work on yourself but you also have a team there to help build you up and support you through your journey.

How much practice do you go to every week? 

Every week I hit about seven in water practices each about two hours long. And then I do three one hour lifting sessions.

 Do you do those twice a day sometimes?

Yeah, we usually have doubles twice a week.

 How many calories do you think you burn every practice?

In the few days that I track it, on double days I burn 6000 to 7000 calories.

How early do you wake up for practices?

So we have two morning practices a week for swimming and two lifting practices a week. I have to be up at five to get on the road.

 How do you deal with the calorie loss and also waking up early?

 Waking up early. I typically just have to get to bed early to get everything done. I feel it creates a good planning schedule. So I’m not procrastinating. I’m not up to 12. Then the calorie thing is difficult with school and lunch and everything but after morning practice I have a nice hearty breakfast and I pack a decent lunch. And then dinner typically comes after the evening practice just to help recuperate everything that I’ve lost.

Are you excited about this upcoming season?

 Yeah, I’m excited. I feel like I’m preparing really well for it to have a good season and also to help prepare myself for college.

Are you scared of any other teams outside of Grandview?

 Creek and Regis have always been competitive teams in our area. They’ve always had a huge depth to draw from when it comes to swimmers. It’s just Grandview, unfortunately, is a smaller team but I feel like this year we’re definitely going to be very competitive.

What events do you swim?

 I primarily swim the 200 free, 100 free, 50 free and the 100 Fly.

What are your times best times in those?

 In my 200 Free I have 142.00. In my 100 Free I have a 147.82. In my 50 Free I have a 22.30 and in my 100 Fly I have a 52.18

Have you broken any Grandview records?

Me and our team have broken a few relay records and this year I’m working towards the 200 Freestyle record

 Do you have any more goals besides just that?

 I want to put myself in a good position to join the college swimming world after the season.

 Do you have any colleges you’re looking at? 

 I’m planning to enroll and commit at Colorado School of Mines to swim and study.

Do you have any favorite memories from the Grandview team?

 My favorite memory is going to be when we were at State and we were just this little school that not many people thought of in the swimming world as a competitive swim team. And we came to the relay and surprised everyone with the competition we put down and the look on everyone’s face as we were the little team that could, was probably the best part.

How do you think the team’s chemistry is overall?

 I feel like it’s something you don’t get with a lot of teams. When you put a bunch of high schoolers together, we have a certain understanding for each other that just really seems to click.