Freestyle gets her farther

Kenya Jackson originally joined the swim team to spend more time with the friends she got to know during water polo season, but she first started swimming when she was only five years old.

Jackson swam until she was nine, but suffered an injury, so this is her first year back in the pool competitively.

She loves the people on her swimming team, including the eight different coaches who she said are all so much fun and endlessly supportive of the girls on the team. For Jackson, the swim team is like family and she loves the members of the team.

During competitions, Jackson believes that her best race is the 500 freestyle, because she enjoys that stroke more than any others.

“If I could give future swimmers any advice, it is to have faith in your coach, to only give you what you can handle, and to trust your dive coach to not let anything happen to you,” she said. She realizes that those who follow that advice will be as safe as they can be on the team and in the pool, because the coaches are looking out for their team members.

She wants to go to Xavier University in Louisiana and maybe eventually join the military, either the Navy or the Marines, but her more current goal is to beat her nemesis, Lily, in competition.