Practice continued Tuesday at Yorktown High School, but a new national recordbreaker was the one who jumped in the pool.
Sixteen-year-old junior Emily Weiss competed in the state swim meet Feb. 10 and swam the 100 meter breaststroke in 58.40 seconds. The previous high school record was 58.56 seconds.
When she got to the IUPUI Natatorium, Weiss knew what to do and had a plan
“I always have a schedule. I followed it, and then when it got to race time, I just put my head down and really focused on my technique [and] ended up winning,” Weiss said. “During my race, I had no idea what was going on … I could only hear the crowd getting loud until I finished and I saw [the time].”
Weiss’ coach, Tony Santino, has coached her for six years and was there for the win.
“It was quite amazing. At that point, I didn’t know what to do … one of my club coaches goes ‘go over there!’ You go over there, and at that point the rest of the team is getting hugs and stuff. It’s pretty neat, and I wanted them to get that opportunity. I kinda laid back, gave her a tap on the head and then I had to go find a place to sit down and let it all sink in.
Swimming has been a part of Weiss’ life for several years. She participated in a variety of sports when she was younger but narrowed it down to swimming in middle school because she was best at swimming.
“My parents always told me that I loved playing in the water. When we were on vacation, I would always want to go to the pool or go to the beach,” Weiss said. “[My parents] decided to put me in swim lessons and from swim lessons [I went] onto competitive swimming.”
In middle school, Weiss made the Olympic trial cut and broke school records. She continued to win in high school and on Saturday became a three time state champion swimmer.
Now, Weiss is looking forward to more competitions and trying to break other records.
