National 2025

One of my personal goals when I started getting back into swimming was to qualify for the College Club National Championships. I had been out of the sport for a while, so I was nowhere near my peak performance, but the time standards were tantalizingly within reach. I trained hard for several quarters, getting back into the groove of swimming I was used to in high school. I gained a reputation in the club for having harder practice and pushing the group, but this seemed to work out well because my hard work motivated others on the team to push themselves as well.

After missing the 200 freestyle cut for a couple of meets, I finally qualified at the last chance during our meet against Oregon. It was an amazing feeling not only to qualify but to also prove to myself and the rest of the club that the hard sets and training despite being a college club team were worth it. I was able to swim at Nationals in 2025 and also ran into many of my old swimmer friends from high school who were there competing as well from their respective colleges across the country. It was a great experience to reconnect with people I haven’t seen in years through our shared love of swimming. College Club is a great way to keep participating in the sport without it being too serious or competitive. People still swim fast and train hard, but there is a clear understanding that we are here for our love of the sport and that it’s not our primary focus in life.

Here is my 200 Freestyle at Nationals (I am in lane 1, closest to the side-view camera or on the left-most side of the screen on the top-view camera):

While I was in the “happy to be here” heat (fast enough to make the cut, but far away from making finals), I was able to win my race and feel fast in the water. To me, that’s all that matters. All of this hard work on top of school demonstrates to me that if I put my mind to something, I can achieve it.