Two Episcopal swimmers prepare for Olympic Trials

Brooke Kelly ’18: This coming August, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil will be hosting the 2016 Summer Olympics, and two Episcopal athletes have the chance to travel there to compete. Emma Seiberlich ‘17 and Alex Sumner ‘18, members of the Episcopal Academy swim team, will strive to make their mark at the Olympic trials this summer in Omaha, Nebraska. From June 26th to July 3rd, these Episcopal athletes will join swimmers from around the country with the goal of competing and swimming their way to the Olympics.

To officially qualify for the trials, the swimmers must receive times that are equal to or below the set times USA Swimming requires for each event. Two years before the trials, USA swimming releases these times. Emma Seiberlich vividly remembers the moment she found out she was eligible to compete. “I was in class with Dr. Row, and we weren’t allowed to have our phones, but the times came out at 2:00 and when I found out in class, I was so happy, but I couldn’t tell anyone because I had my phone out.” At the trials, Emma will compete in the 100 Backstroke, the 200 Backstroke, and the 100 Butterfly.

Alex had a similar reaction. Alex’s primary goal was to qualify for Junior Nationals, in hopes of eventually competing in Nationals and maybe the Olympic trials. When she discovered that she had made the cut for the trials for the 200 Backstroke by nine tenths of a second, she was shocked. Alex explains, “In the prelims of the meet that I got the time, I was just excited that I got my Junior Nationals cut. So when I went to finals, I was really surprised that I got the trials cut.”

Alex has used her qualification as an incentive to improve her times. “It makes me more determined to want to drop time and get better at it.” Using this mentality, she has been able to beat the time that initially qualified her for the trials. Alex will be swimming the 200 Backstroke, the 100 Backstroke, the 200 Individual Medley, and the 400 Individual Medley.

Both Alex and Emma have been rigorously training with their swim teams to prepare. Alex, currently swimming with the Suburban Seahawks Club from Newtown Square, and Emma, who swims with Phoenixville YMCA, plan to switch their training from a short-course pool to a long-course pool so that they will be well-accustomed to the swimming environment at the trials.  In addition to the changes in the size of the pool, the girls will have to adjust to the size of the audience, both watching from the stands and the television. Lauren Rodio ‘18, teammate of Seiberlich and Sumner, states, “As soon as we figure out what time their events will be, I am sure we will all watch it on TV.” Although Seiberlich and Sumner have big plans for their swimming careers in the USA swimming circuit, their involvement in the program at EA does not go unnoticed.

This year at the Eastern Interscholastic Swimming and Diving Championships, Alex and Emma won all four of their events. Alex swam in the 200 Medley, an all American relay with Sally Stocket and Sarah Baturka, which almost broke the meet record. Emma won the 200 freestyle and the 100 butterfly, while Alex won the 200 IM and set the meet record for the 100 backstroke. They also participated in the 400 freestyle relay, which set the school record. The coaches voted Alex as Female Swimmer of the Meet. Brian Kline, an Episcopal parent and coach of the swimming team, elaborates on the major contributions both Alex and Emma have made to the swimming program at Episcopal. “Their accomplishments this year obviously helped us, all their individual goals helped mount up to a team goal of winning the inter-ac and possibly winning at Easterns, which we were four points short of.”

In addition to their athletic ability, Kline commented on the characters of Alex and Emma, both as people and athletes. “They are really-hard workers. Swimming is what they do best, so we try to allow them the opportunities to grow and get better.” Rodio describes the two as “extremely humble” and continues to say, “They are never going to brag and they always want to share their excitement and success with the whole team.”

Kline concludes, “My prediction, if I was to make one, would be that they are going to shine no matter what they do.”