by Michelle Sandstrom
Varsity swimmer Carolyn Vasquez, who recently celebrated her seventeenth birthday, is a senior here at Oak Harbor High school and is enjoying her last year on the girls swim team.
Born in the hot sun down in San Diego California, she has lived here all of her adult life and has been swimming six years of it, including all four years of high school.
She got into swimming because of friends and her main event has been the 50 freestyle. Describing an average practice she said they swim about 2,000-4,000 meters including backstroke, the breast stroke, fly, and freestyle, and before they get wet they dry land activities they have to accomplish first. Just hearing about a practice makes me thankful I’m not a swimmer, and she proceeds to explain to my why swimming is the hardest sport; “runners use there legs, soccer players use there legs, swimmers use there whole body”, “oh and girls swim is definitely tougher then boys swim - look at our rockin’ swimmer shoulders” she adds on.
Despite all the hard workouts provided by Coach Erika Miller and the work that is put into swimming, she describes the girls as “awesome” and that they are “all pretty close, especially towards the end of the season”. “This is our largest group of girls yet, we have about twenty five”!
A meet for these ladies reminds me a track meet, where there are is a JV and Varsity race for each event, however swimmers have two individual, two relays, and our Oak Harbor High School swim team has divers, which not all schools have. These meets are held at any pool large enough and Carolyn hopes to make it to State this year for the 50 freestyle or relay, which is her favorite meet because her parents always go to it.
During her off season she tells me she continues to swim all throughout winter to stay in shape and as a plus she is a lifeguard at the local pool, and in spring she usually participates in track but this year is considering golf. Outside of school sports, she runs the Whidbey Triathlon and the Whidbey Half Marathon. She also added in that during the off season it is usually harder to keep her grades up, however this season it is just as much as a challenge as out of season because they only have four home meets this season and are always leaving between fourth and fifth period and it’s a lot of work to constantly have to make up.
Outside of school and homework it’s hard to believe this always on the go swimmer has a life, and here she shared a little of it with me. She talks about being single and she has two amazing best friends (Josh D. and Keri Anne W. who is also a swimmer), however homework does consume most of her life so she doesn’t see much of them or her parents who both happen to be dentists or her brother Henry who is away at Notre Dame. But when she does have spare time she likes to dance, kayak, snow board, and soon scuba dive!
When she graduates she plans on seeing the rest of the world and find some warm weather and while doing go into the field of nursing and work in South Africa, but while attending college she wants to try water polo!
A fun side note about Carolyn is that she often gets compared to a fish and people say “they don’t recognize her with her hair dry”.
Carolyn is on the fast track to success and hopefully we hear more from her near the end of the season along with the rest of these lady swimmers on there way to state.
Born in the hot sun down in San Diego California, she has lived here all of her adult life and has been swimming six years of it, including all four years of high school.
She got into swimming because of friends and her main event has been the 50 freestyle. Describing an average practice she said they swim about 2,000-4,000 meters including backstroke, the breast stroke, fly, and freestyle, and before they get wet they dry land activities they have to accomplish first. Just hearing about a practice makes me thankful I’m not a swimmer, and she proceeds to explain to my why swimming is the hardest sport; “runners use there legs, soccer players use there legs, swimmers use there whole body”, “oh and girls swim is definitely tougher then boys swim - look at our rockin’ swimmer shoulders” she adds on.
Despite all the hard workouts provided by Coach Erika Miller and the work that is put into swimming, she describes the girls as “awesome” and that they are “all pretty close, especially towards the end of the season”. “This is our largest group of girls yet, we have about twenty five”!
A meet for these ladies reminds me a track meet, where there are is a JV and Varsity race for each event, however swimmers have two individual, two relays, and our Oak Harbor High School swim team has divers, which not all schools have. These meets are held at any pool large enough and Carolyn hopes to make it to State this year for the 50 freestyle or relay, which is her favorite meet because her parents always go to it.
During her off season she tells me she continues to swim all throughout winter to stay in shape and as a plus she is a lifeguard at the local pool, and in spring she usually participates in track but this year is considering golf. Outside of school sports, she runs the Whidbey Triathlon and the Whidbey Half Marathon. She also added in that during the off season it is usually harder to keep her grades up, however this season it is just as much as a challenge as out of season because they only have four home meets this season and are always leaving between fourth and fifth period and it’s a lot of work to constantly have to make up.
Outside of school and homework it’s hard to believe this always on the go swimmer has a life, and here she shared a little of it with me. She talks about being single and she has two amazing best friends (Josh D. and Keri Anne W. who is also a swimmer), however homework does consume most of her life so she doesn’t see much of them or her parents who both happen to be dentists or her brother Henry who is away at Notre Dame. But when she does have spare time she likes to dance, kayak, snow board, and soon scuba dive!
When she graduates she plans on seeing the rest of the world and find some warm weather and while doing go into the field of nursing and work in South Africa, but while attending college she wants to try water polo!
A fun side note about Carolyn is that she often gets compared to a fish and people say “they don’t recognize her with her hair dry”.
Carolyn is on the fast track to success and hopefully we hear more from her near the end of the season along with the rest of these lady swimmers on there way to state.
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