Sarah Keffer ’17: Emma Seiberlich ‘17 decided to quit gymnastics and try swimming when she was eight years old. Nine years later, after countless hours of practice, she has become a standout swimmer at EA and across the country. This year marked Seiberlich’s fourth year on Episcopal’s varsity girls swim team and she has made a big impact. She set three Delco records in the 400 freestyle relay, the 100 freestyle, and the 200 freestyle.
In addition to the records she broke, this summer Seiberlich made the U18 national team and qualified for the Olympic Trials which take place this June. She will compete in three different events, the 200 Back, the 100 Back, and the 100 Fly. The top two swimmers in each event will get a spot on the USA Olympic Swim team and compete in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Seiberlich mentioned that she is excited for the Olympic Trials because, “It’s going to be a really cool experience. It’s going to be in an arena and there will only be 8 people on the deck at any given time because only your heat swims. It will be pretty cool to just see the crowd and no one else.”
Photo courtesy of Delco Times
All of her success comes from many hours of hard work. Seiberlich explained that she trains “for 20 hours each week, nine practices per week. On a normal day I’m up at 4:45 for 5:30-7am practice, and then I get back to the pool after school for dryland for an hour, and then I swim for 2 more hours. That’s a typical Monday, Wednesday, Friday schedule. On Tuesday and Thursday I get to sleep in but have a similar afternoon schedule. I also lift 2x per week.”
Seiberlich has been successful individually outside of school swimming, but she has proven to be an asset to Episcopal’s team through her versatility and devotion to the team. Her main coach at EA, Quincy Hyson, remarked that, “she’s obviously really talented, and that’s a strength, but I think she generally cares about the other kids doing well. She swims on US swimming, so that’s something where she can go and excel on her own and get her individual accolades, but when she’s on a team at school that’s her focus, she wants the team to succeed.”
Fellow teammate Maddie O’Reilly ‘17, reiterated Hyson’s point by stating that “Emma can swim every single event that we have at each meet. She’s almost the best in all those events so she can get points whenever we need her to. She’s always ready to step up in relays and swim butterfly, backstroke, or freestyle.” Her many strengths and adaptability contributed to her stunning performance at Easterns where she was unable to swim her main event, the 100 backstroke.
Coach Hyson explained that Emma, “was the 100 backstroke champion for the past three years. This year because of the SATs getting postponed, it was put on the same weekend as Easterners, so she had to miss the second morning of Easterns which was the 100 backstroke. That’s been the race she dominated, but she had to find a new event – the 200 free – so seeing her go to Easterns, swim a brand new event, and win it was pretty special.” Next year Seiberlich will be a captain of the swim team along with O’Reilly and Nikki Cannon ‘17. She looks forward to “seeing what we can do for the team being leaders and what we can make out of the year and hopefully getting an Eastern championship together.”
Captain Sarah Baturka ’16 adds, “She is a good teammate because she knows the value of true hardowrk and has the right mindset for being an elite swimmer. She is really dedicated to what she does but she keeps everything in persepective and is able to not over analyize her races. She is always super calm and poised.”