Ever since her parents enrolled her in lessons as a small child, sophomore Eliza Anderson has loved and excelled at swimming. Anderson was only nine years old when her swimming instructor suggested she try out for a club swim team. She tried out for the Lawrence Aquahawks, made the team and has been swimming for them ever since.

“I really liked swimming, so I thought ‘why not?’” Anderson said. “…I just haven’t stopped, basically.”

Anderson practices six days a week all year round. Twice a week, she has “two-a-days”, which means she has a practice from 5:30-6:30 before school and 3:30-5:30 after school. She gets up at 4:30 am on those days.

Recently, Anderson’s hard work was rewarded when her leg in the 200 meter freestyle relay race helped break a school record. With a split of 24.87 seconds, the performance was only one second off of Kansas’s state record. Anderson attributes the speed of the record-setting race to the energy her teammates and her built up before the meet.

“That was a second faster than I’ve ever gone,” Anderson said.  “That just came with the energy and excitement of it all, I think.”

Anderson aspires to swim in college, ideally at a Division I level.

In addition to swimming, Anderson plays the trombone in band and jazz band, and is an active member of the Renaissance Committee.

In the future, Anderson hopes to go into a pharmaceutical career, which would be chemistry and physics intensive.

“I like math and science a lot,” Anderson said.  “It’s weird, but I do.”

Adding  big dreams to current successes, Anderson’s future looks bright.