Q:  What was your personal highlight from the meet on Saturday Dec. 12 against Penn?

A:  We didn’t win, but we all were cheering for each other. There was a lot of team bonding going on.

Q:  For how long have you been swimming?

A:  This is my twelfth year swimming.

Q:  What inspired you to start swimming?

A:  My brother started [swimming] with the Barracudas when he was really young and then my sister started. I just went along with them.

Q:  What about the sport made you want to continue?

A:  The people because we all come up together and we get to be a family, more than just a team.  Even though it is all really individual and you are racing against the clock and it’s just you, [swimming] is so much a team sport.

Q:  Who are your inspirations? What makes them special?

A:  Missy Franklin because she’s one of the youngest Olympic swimmers. Just the fact that she could go to the Olympics in high school and win medals is really cool.

Q:  What is your favorite event to swim? Why?

A:  [My favorite event is the] 100-meter butterfly. I’m one of the only flyers on the team so I always have to swim it. Even though it is considered the hardest stroke, I always found it easier to swim than some of the others.

Q:  What do you like about swimming for Lake Central? Why?

A:  The facility is amazing. I love the pool here. The people too. [Mr. Todd Smolinski, Social Studies] is a good coach and you don’t really view your coaches as coaches, they’re more like friends.

Q:  How often do you practice?

A:  There’s two practices every day during the school week. On Saturdays, we have one practice.   During breaks, we have two practices a day. We practice pretty often.

Q:  What are your personal goals this season?

A:  I want to get third in sectionals in the 100-meter butterfly and I want to be able to go under a minute.

Q:  What has been your personal proudest moment thus far?

A:  This season, I’ve been able to go faster than what I wanted to go at Sectionals last year, which is the peak of how you go. I’m already better than I was last year.

Q:  What are your hopes for the team this swim season?

A:  We’re already proving people wrong because we were ranked not as high as we had hoped.  We are already ahead of some of the [teams] that they ranked ahead of us, so I hope we continue to move up in the rankings.

Q:  What advice do you have for other swimmers?
A:  Don’t give up. No matter how much pain you’re in or how out of breath you are, just keep pushing because in the end you’ll feel so much better than when you started.