Sports: Swimming
Favorite athlete: Ryan Lochte
Favorite team: Phillies
Favorite memory competing in sports: Winning the District One-Team Championships my sophomore year. We had to win the final event, the 400 Free Relay to win the team championship. As the starter announced the race, he said, “this is for all the marbles!” Winning this with my team and my coach is to date my favorite memory.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: I was disqualified in a high school race for dunking my goggles in the pool before a race!
Music on your iPod: Country, Jason Mraz, and Rascal Flatts
Future plans: Attending Southern Methodist University to study Business Marketing and swim.
Words to live by: Some people want it to happen; some wish it would happen, others make it happen.
One goal before turning 30: To be on my way to a successful career and a happy life.
One thing people don’t know about me: I lived 8 years in Arizona.
Ask Council Rock North girls swimming coach Ted Schueller what makes Madison Meyer so exceptional and he can point to her stunning 85-3 career record in individual races in dual meets. He can cite her numerous league and district titles and records, her performances at states, and her intense drive and determination to swim her very best every time she’s in the water.
He can, but he won’t. At least, not at first.
The first thing Schueller will mention is the one time Meyer didn’t swim her fastest.
“We were going into the Pennridge meet right before the holidays and one of the juniors, Nicolette Kothe, her goal was to get her district time in the 500 (freestyle) out of the way early,” Schueller said. “The day before the meet, Madison said, ‘If you need me to do anything to help Nicolette, I will.’
“When we got there, we saw there were a lot of pool records that could have been broken, and the 500 was well in reach for Madison. I told her she can go for the pool record and she said, ‘I don’t care about that. I want to help Nicolette. What can I do?’”
In order to make the district cut, Kothe would need to swim each 50-yard split at 34 seconds or less.
“They got into the water after diving to do some pace 50s,” Schueller said. “Madison said, ‘If I go 32s, will that help?’ I put them both in the water and had them do five pace 50s and got Nicolette to get a true feel to what holding 34s or faster will be. And she did exactly what we needed her to do. She made all her 50 splits and she made the cut. Madison was the first one to get out and hug her. That shows what kind of kid Madison is. She’s unselfish and she’s a total teammate in every way.”
For Meyer, there was never a thought of going for the record. After all, record books are meant to be rewritten. Names are meant to be erased. But friendships and shared experiences … those can last forever.
“Nicolette is one of the hardest practice workers I’ve ever seen,” Meyer said. “She works her butt off day in and day out in that pool. She was trying and trying to get that qualifying time and kept coming up just short. It was really an easy choice for me to help her. The happiness she felt, the smile on her face, was better than any record. And I know that’s cliché, but I actually felt way more joy in the fact that she is able to participate in districts than I would by having my name on a board.”
But that’s typical of Meyer. She’s quick to credit her coach and those swimmers who showed her how to be successful through her years at Council Rock North, and is never happier than when her teammates set personal-bests. And she’s well-versed in the tradition of success at Council Rock North swimming.
“The whole experience has been amazing,” Meyer said. “I wouldn’t change it for anything. Some of my best high school memories come from swimming in that pool. And the fact that I have only four more races in it saddens me, but it also excites me, because I want to swim them the best I can.
“Coming into that legacy of Council Rock North and being able to represent it, the individual success was always toward the team success. I felt proud being able to represent my school.”
Of course, Meyer has played no small part in the last four years of that success. In addition to her amazing dual-meet record for individual events, she truly shines during the championship season.
She has been the Suburban One League National Conference Champion in the 200 and 500 freestyle for the past two years and won the District Title in the 500 free as a sophomore. She has been a District finalist and State Championship qualifier for three years.
And then there are her 200 and 400 relay squads. Meyer has never been on a losing relay in four years of dual meets (and three years of Suburbans).As a freshman, Meyer’s 200 and 400 free relay teams finished third in the district.
As a sophomore, the 200 relay claimed bronze again, and Meyer anchored the 400 free relay that ended the District Championships. In what she considers the highlight of her career, Meyer touched the wall two seconds ahead of her nearest challenger, earning the Indians not only the district title in the 400 free, but also the District One Class AAA Team Championship.
“You can feel a good vibe during a relay,” Meyer said. “My three partners before me had great record-breaking swims, too, I just had to finish it. But that memory of everybody going crazy, Ted jumping up and down, that was probably my favorite memory.”
Last season, the 400 relay defended its title and added the District Title in the 200, relays that broke Council Rock North pool records in the process and earned Meyer and her relay-mates Kate Dillione, Bizzy Millen and Tommie Dillione All-America honors.
And between individual races and relays, Meyer has attended the PIAA State Championships three times.
Though Meyer admits she could never have seen this coming that first day she walked in as a freshman – nervous and worried she wouldn’t know the proper lane in which to swim – her coach had little doubt that she had big things in store.
“I knew the first time she swam, the way she swam the race, the way she approached it,” Schueller said. “When she gets behind the blocks, it’s like she turns a switch on and gets in the zone. She knows what to do each race and knows her competition. I knew the first time she swam, she was going to be four years something to watch.”
Though she’s nearly untouchable in the pool, Meyer is always open and accessible to her younger teammates when they need help.
“The girls really look up to her and follow her,” Schueller said. “We have 11 freshmen and 13 sophomores, so the bulk of the team is very young. Madison is very vocal and genuinely sincere. She’s the first one who goes over and hugs a kid, cheers behind her lane.
“Madison and Julia Demarest, the two swimming captains (diver Mikaela Gribbin is the third captain on this year’s squad) have taken the younger swimmers under their wing. I sat with them early in the season and told them what I need from them and they have done more than I could have expected. In my six years at Rock and 30 years at Bensalem, I haven’t had captains that have been better. They have done everything you can ask for.”
For Meyer, being a captain was no different than swimming. If she was going to accept a leadership role, she was going to give nothing less than 100 percent in order to help the team.
“I was so honored that my team respected me and trusts me with the responsibility of being a captain,” she said. “I take it very seriously. I adore my team and I try to do my best for them. We have a really positive energy as a team. I think the upperclassmen have always supported the underclassmen and that’s a reason why we’re so successful. We really want that team atmosphere and we work really hard to stay that way.
“But we also want them to know what is expected of them. They need to know what the standard is at Council Rock. We want to have a good image. We want to be represented well. And I think as leaders, seniors and captains, it’s our job to teach the underclassmen so that legacy and tradition can continue.”
And Meyer and her teammates have only added to that legacy. Council Rock North has won the Suburban One National Conference Championships in each of Meyer’s previous three years, and with the league meet coming up this weekend, she and her fellow seniors are gunning for four.
If the Indians are to defend their title, they’ll be depending on Meyer’s leadership outside the pool and her efforts in the water. They’d be looking to the right person, because this is the time of the season that Meyer lives for.
“It’s really starting to get exciting,” she said. “It’s starting to feel like we’re swimming faster and the team is getting excited. Last year our team graduated some key members so we knew coming into the season we needed to fill those places, and almost instantly our team was able to come together and swim well. We lost two relay members but we replaced them with excellent swimmers, so I’m really excited to see what we do now.
“It’s my last season and I want to swim well. Hopefully we can win Suburbans for my fourth time, but all in all, the girls swimming their best times would make me happy. You can see how hard these girls have worked, and to see them all have best times and be happy with their success would be successful in my eyes.”
Of course, girls swimming their best times would also likely mean that North – which has already qualified numerous individuals and relays for districts – could add a few more. And that means a better chance at a District team title … and the potential to get several swimmers to states. And, of course, Meyer wouldn’t mind earning a couple individual medals as well as relay medals at the State Championships.
It would be the perfect way for Meyer to go out, because come fall, she’ll be back where she was four years ago, as a freshman with a ton of potential. Meyer will be attending Southern Methodist University on a swimming scholarship and will major in business marketing. It will be a bit of a return to her southwestern roots for Meyer, who moved to the area from Arizona when she was 9.
“I’m going back to the warmth,” she said with a laugh. “I’m not really a snow fan, I don’t really like the cold. I do love where I live, but I’m going back toward the warmth.
“I’ve dreamt of swimming Division I my whole swimming career, and I always wanted to swim outside and SMU has a 50-meter outside facility. I want to just go in, find my lane and work hard. Working hard is the best way to find success and find your place.”
Schueller has no doubts that Meyer will not only find her place, but will blaze her own path. He’s seen her do it over the last four years. And he knows exactly what kind of athlete – and what kind of person – Council Rock North is losing, and what SMU is gaining.
“We’re losing one of the top swimmers to ever come out of the school, talent-wise and as a person,” Schueller said, “not just with her times and what she brings to the lineup, but her character, her leadership, her sincerity of what she does and what she means to the team.
“SMU’s getting somebody special. She’s going to bring a lot to the table. She’s going to be cheering on her teammates and then when it’s time to do her thing, she’s going to step up and give it her best. That’s what she’s always done. That’s what I expect she’s always going to do.”
