How did the recruitment process work?

It starts at the end of July sophomore year, where coaches are allowed to reach out to you. For a lot of the big D1 schools like (the University of) Texas or Arizona State University, they reach out pretty early and you see a lot of people committing early. But a lot of the Ivy League schools like Columbia University start a lot later, like the end of junior year or the beginning of senior year, like what happened to me. I pretty much had a steady conversation with my coaches and eventually Columbia gave me the offer.

Why did you decide to commit to Columbia University? 

I really like the environment there and I really like the team. The fact that it’s in New York is really nice. Also, their academics are really good too, which is really important. I’m thinking I will major in applied math and minor in finance or business. Even if I wasn’t a swimmer, Columbia would’ve been one of my top choices anyways.

What are your future goals with swimming at Columbia? 

There’s an Ivy League conference, so I’m probably going to shoot for top three. I really want to swim in college, but I probably won’t be swimming professionally.

As a top swimmer at this school, what does a normal day look like for you?

It kind of depends, but on the average day I would wake up at around 5:30 a.m., go to practice from 6:15 a.m. to 8:30 a.m., and then go through school like everyone else. Usually, there’s afternoon practice from 4:20 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Do you swim competitively apart from the school team?

Yes, Carmel is sort of weird in that our coach for the high school team and the club team are the same. It’s not like that in a lot of other schools. Our high school training is pretty much our club training and vice versa.

How did you first get involved in swimming? 

They don’t know how to swim themselves, but my parents made me swim so I wouldn’t drown. When I was younger, I didn’t really like swimming because it was really cold. But when I started putting in the work and getting better at it, I started enjoying it more and more because I could actually feel myself improving. I really like how when I swim, I don’t have to think. I can just turn my brain off and focus on getting to the finish line.

How do you balance swimming with taking rigorous classes?

You just have to get really good at time management. Since practice is really early in the morning, you have to get to bed really early too. Last year, I found a way to do that because of the day the practice schedules worked. Wednesday only had one afternoon practice, so I would spend my entire Tuesday night grinding out all the schoolwork for the week until Thursday night. To be honest, the swim practice schedule makes it really hard to do all my assignments on time.

Who is your biggest swimming influence?

There was this guy last year. His name was Gregg Enoch. He was just really, really good. In the country, he was ranked, like, seventh, I think. And now, he’s putting up really, really good D1 and top NCAA times. Last year, I just saw his work ethic. He was always the first one in the pool, the last one out, and always be one of, if not the most hardworking guy there. He didn’t complain, he swam fast, and that kind of inspired me to do the same, or at least try to.