Writer and Photographer / Keeley Miller
Next summer, two HSE swimmers will be traveling to Omaha, Nebraska, to compete in one of the biggest swimming events in the nation – the Olympic Trials. Both senior Natalie Mudd and 2015 graduate Joe Young qualified for the trials.
Mudd qualified in the 100 yard backstroke with a time of 1:03.16, almost a whole half second below the necessary qualification time. She dropped over a second from her previous personal record in the event.
“It was really hard. It was the worst pain of my life, but I knew that I had to get through it,” said Mudd. “When I finished, I looked at the board, and I couldn’t comprehend if it was the right time. But then I heard the coaches screaming, and I knew that I got it. It was the best moment of my life. I had been working years for this.”
Young, who qualified in the 100 yard backstroke with a time of 57.15 and the 200 yard backstroke with a time of 2:03.05, is currently swimming at Purdue University.
“When I got the time for the 200 backstroke, the time standards for the 2016 Olympic Trials had not come out yet since it was only 2014. However, I couldn’t stop smiling because I knew I was within the top 10 times in the country for my age group,” said Young. “I got the 100 backstroke cut this past summer. I dropped a lot of time in order to lower my personal record to 57.26, just .07 off of the qualifying time. As you could imagine, swimming the cut this time around made me overjoyed.”
Both of these qualifications took years of hard work and dedication. Swimming, a year-round sport, requires hours of practice almost every day.
“[The most difficult part about swimming is] swimming,” said Young. “Every practice can tear you down in ways you couldn’t ever imagine were possible…but some of my most memorable moments in high school are either in the pool or were made with acquaintances I’ve made through swimming.”
