Person of the Week: Sydney Stanford

Just two weeks ago, the Cy Woods swimming team dominated the competition and showed off their greatest strengths at the district’s latest swim meet. Their combined efforts and 212 spirit in the pool were well rewarded with first place. Every single swimmer put in everything they had; however, there was one who gave it her all and added an extra ten percent to ensure the win. Junior swimmer Sydney Stanford was the one to receive Swimmer of the Meet after the stunning performance that put Cy Woods at the top as district champion for the second year in a row.

Swimmer of the Meet is by no means an easy feat to achieve, and is notably only earned through hard work and dedication.

 “The time that you go and how fast you are awards a certain amount of points, and whoever earns the most points by the end becomes Swimmer of the Meet,” Stanford said. “I’ve been swimming all three years, and this has been my fifth swim meet overall. I’ve earned Swimmer of the Meet before during these past two years as well.”

Along with sheer effort and labor, Stanford also has years of experience to back up her talent.

“I’ve been swimming competitively since I was four,” Stanford said. “My neighbors were actually the ones who convinced me to swim summer league, which isn’t as competitive as club. They just told me it would be really fun, so I decided to join.”

However, Stanford has no plans to slow down just because the Cy Woods team is on top. She’s still hard at work and looking to make her accomplishments known nationwide.

“By the end of the year I want to get my first national cut,” Stanford said. “It’s the certain time standards that allow you to go to a national meet. The national meet is a meet that anyone who qualifies in the country can go to.”

Even after her high school swimming career ends, Stanford will still have goals to reach, and she plans to keep on dominating the waters in bigger and better teams.

“I’m talking to colleges right now about swimming scholarships, I’m very serious about planning it out.” Stanford said. “My top choices right now are Texas A&M and University of Tennessee.”

When asked what she enjoyed most about swimming, her answer didn’t necessarily include the competition or the physical sport itself.

“My favorite thing about swimming is definitely being around all these people, the teammates help you get through rough practices and they’re always so supportive no matter what.”