By Keira Zhong
Staff Writer
Diving into the pool, junior Samantha Wong extends her arms and draws her knees forward against the water pressure. As she finishes her last breaststroke and emerges from the surface, sunlight hits her goggles while the water splashes around her. She successfully beats her past swimming time.
At age three, Wong began lessons at the YMCA. Currently, she is on the varsity girls swim team as well as a member of Rosemead Rapids, a club that hosts meets for swim teams to compete against each other.
“I find swimming enjoyable as it helped me gain more friends and build confidence,” Wong said. “My advice for beginners is to spend time practicing and have fun swimming.”
During the swim season, she practices with the school team, primarily doing breaststroke, butterfly and freestyle techniques. Outside of the season, Wong trains with the Rosemead Rapids two hours a day. The sets vary depending on whether it’s a long-distance, sprint or a stroke day.
“Swimming is both a team sport and an individual sport because although you’re swimming against others, you’re trying to beat your own time for the stroke,” Wong said. “This helped me feel more confident and trust myself that I’ve trained hard enough, knowing what I’m doing.”
Wong broke the school record in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:04.95 and the 200-yard individual Medley record with a time of 2:10.28.
Currently, she has plans for the 100- and 200-yard breaststroke and sectionals in other events, hoping to reach junior nationals in the 100-yard breaststroke only 0.45 seconds away. Although Wong plans to reach shorter times in her junior year and use swimming on college applications, her skill is not her main priority.
“Being a student-athlete trained me to manage my time with homework and practice,” Wong said. “ I’ve learned to do my assignments more efficiently, working on the easy parts first and leaving the homework that takes a little longer for last.”