On Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2011, Pennsbury senior Alex Naglich was recognized at a special news conference for signing a letter of intent to swim at the University of Kentucky.
Alex Naglich – University of Kentucky (Swimming)
Major: Undecided
Final list of schools: Kentucky, Indiana University
Reasons for choosing Kentucky: “Just the team in general – they’re like a big family. Indiana was a faster school, but the coaching and the team at Kentucky were awesome.”
What was the progression that led you to swim at the collegiate level? “I think it always was a dream ever since I was a kid. I grew up being a natural swimmer, and I just stuck with it since I was a kid.
“It feels great knowing the 10-plus years I put into it are finally paying off and paying my way to college.”
How did you become interested in distance swimming? “It was just kind of natural. That was what I was always best at. I wish I was a sprinter, but I can’t sprint at all. I swim the 200, but the 500 is my favorite.”
Coach Greg Stoloski: “When Alex came to us as a freshman, he was a kid who had always been a distance swimmer. That was his specialty. When you have a distance kid who’s naturally talented at it and has been training for it, it’s a huge boost to a program. He came into the program, and he immediately had an impact. He was winning races, setting qualifying times. In his sophomore year, he broke a longstanding school record for the 500 freestyle.
“The 500 free is actually shortest of the long distance events, but it’s the longest we do in high school, so when he goes to college, he’s going to be swimming the mile and longer distance swims. As a high school swimmer, he went to states his sophomore year and did fantastic. This year he’s probably going to go to states, and I’m expecting him to do an absolutely amazing job – maybe medal, maybe podium. He’s definitely going to break his own record and really make a lot of noise in the pool as the dominant force in his events in our program and in this corner of the state.
“One of the biggest things with a distance swimmer is their work ethic. The training level for a distance swimmer is so much more intense, and it takes a certain type of mental toughness to be willing to train for those events. It’s a lot of yards in the pool. It requires a large amount of endurance, and it really requires a huge commitment. Whereas a sprinter is training for shorter distances and it requires less focus, distance swimmers have to have a mental toughness, which is one of the toughest things in any high school sport. It’s also extremely important that their stroke quality, their finesse and their feel for the water are superb. If you’re a distance swimmer, your stroke has to be as efficient as possible constantly. You need to swim perfectly at length so that there’s no wasted energy.”
About Alex:
Favorite movie: Zoolander
Favorite food: Candy/Starburst
Favorite music: A Tribe Called Quest
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