Get to know some Iowa Lakes Swimmers.

By Staff Writer Kendra Hill

From water to weightlifting to hitting the books, Iowa Lakes Community College Swimmers open up about what they are most enjoying about swimming and what their plans are after they are done with Iowa Lakes.

“I am swimming 100 fly and breast and 50 fly and breast. I’m hoping to place enough in the morning session at nationals to be in the B final. My plan after I graduate from here is to transfer to a 4-year university to get my bachelor’s degree in kinesiology or exercise science. Afterward, I plan to work towards my Master’s to become an occupational therapist. What made me join the swim team was the fact that I got the best of both worlds,” said Juan. “I wanted to swim in college but not pay a lot of tuition to swim D3. With that, I got to swim in college and have a cost-efficient price here at Iowa lakes. It was no brainier about coming here when I was picking my college after I graduated high school. “

Juan, later on, said, “The team has a history in placing high at nationals and even hearing about them placing runner-up in 2015, it was something I wanted to be part of and carry that on. Arriving on campus, the team just clicked and it’s been that way even this year with an additional group of teammates. My preparation for nationals coming this next week has been great. My coaches and teammates are feeling great and we’re ready to go. As an important meet coming up, we have been tapering nicely where we take out lifting and we’re in the water for little bits of time. We also have been resting well. We have high expectations for nationals and it’s a matter of time until we can make those come true.”

“I try to put realistic goals for what I want to achieve but I also my goal is to have fun. Said Juliana, “I swim events that I am comfortable with and have worked on in practice. I plan to transfer to a four-year college to get a degree in marketing. The reason why I chose Iowa Lakes was that I wanted to go to a college that was out of my country as I am from Columbia. I have wanted to study in us for a while so this school just seemed like a good fit for me.”