Cross-Country,Swimming,Track
Favorite athlete: Simone Manuel
Favorite team: 2016 Olympics USA Women’s Gymnastics Team
Favorite memory competing in sports: I really enjoy the Atlantic City swim meet my team does every year because I get to bond with my teammates.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: During a cross country meet, my teammates and I took a wrong turn on the course, so we ended up running more than the other team.
Music on iPod: I don’t really listen to music.
Future plans: I want to further my education, enter the medical field and have a family.
Words to live by: “You only fail when you stop trying.”
One goal before turning 30: Attend the Olympic Games
One thing people don’t know about me: I used to dance ballet when I was four.
By GORDON GLANTZ
While it could be easily argued that we live in a culture that is not careful with its word choices and throws adjectives around too easily, there are times when they apply.
In the case of Bensalem swim team captain Peace Senkungu, all the positive adjectives sound anything but old and worn.
Just ask the senior’s swimming coach, D.J. Mergard, upon learning that Senkungu is the current Univest Featured Female Athlete of the Week.
“I definitely think she is deserving of the honor,” he said. “Peace is a model student-athlete. Every adjective you can think of that defines a student athlete Peace has.
“She is hardworking. Great leadership skills. Reliable. Determined. Ambitious. Focused on her future goals, just to name a few.”
It was no surprise then that the coaching staff named Senkungu team captain this season, which has seen the Owls go from winless to not only being more competitive in meets but also winning a few.
"It was a no-brainer to make Peace a captain this year," Mergard said. "The other coaches and I agreed that Peace exemplified what we were looking for in an effective team captain.
"She was dependable, regularly took a leadership role on the team. She woulld organize functions and chose what apparel the swimmers would purchase. She cared about her teammates and helped with issues that would arise. She worked hard in practice, competed in events that she might not have been comfortable with and would not complain or ask questions as to why she had to swim the event. She would step to the plate when the team needed her most."
Mergard goes on to recall Senkungu volunteering to compete in the grueling 500 free in a meet the team wound up winning last season.
"She puts the team's needs in front of her own individual needs and is always cheering for teammates," Mergard said.
Senkungu, who did not let the honor change who she was or how she deals with people - competes primarily in the 100 breaststroke, 100 freestyle and the 200 and 400 relays. Mergard has been coaching his senior captain since she was a freshman and saw her potential from the outset.
"It was evident from the beginning that she was a talented athlete who had the physical traits to become a good swimmer," the Owls' coach said. "We just had to work through each stroke and focus on the little things.
"Each year she worked harder and harder, listening to what the coaches said and applying it in the pool. Being a great student really helped Peace retain what we had told her on the deck and applied it in the pool."
Mergard points to the breastroke as a stroke Senkungu struggled with as a freshman.
"By working hard at practice and swimming the event in meets, it allowed her to improve her breaststroke and make it one of her best events," the Owls' coach said. "The one common theme regarding her steady improvement was the hard work she put in year to year and the acceptance of what the coaches told her to do that would help make her a better swimmer. She was always receptive to instruction and critique. She has become one of our most reliable swimmers."
Because Bensalem’s swim program draws more from the school’s intramural leagues than from highly competitive community swim programs that send students into other programs already battled-tested, her role was a bit unique.
“I’m more of a quiet person,” said Senkungu, who took swim lessons when she was in grade school, gave it up for a while and then got back in the water in high school, not unlike many of her teammates. “I like to talk to each one, individually. We had some new swimmers this year, and I made sure everyone felt welcome.
“So far, the girls have three wins. It is really good for the program and for the future of the program.”
While she is looking forward to the upcoming Suburban One League meet to see where she stacks up, Senkungu sees the big picture and realizes how far she has come since joining a team that was low on numbers.
“We didn’t have too many people, so I felt welcome,” she said. “At first, though, it was challenging. I just stayed determined, and I’m very glad that I stuck with it.”
Taking It Outside
Buoyed by joining the swim team as a freshman, Senkungu decided to become a three-sport athlete by getting involved in the cross-country and outdoor track squads.
“I didn’t start cross-country and track until my sophomore year,” said the veteran of several spins in the Broad Street Run. “I always loved running, and I figured it would be something different.”
Entering a senior year where she was hoping for positive closure to her scholastic athletic career, she could not have been any more pleased with how her cross-country season went this autumn.
Again, like swimming, it was less about wins and losses and a trophies, and more about team and personal development.
“I was proud to see how far I had come,” she explained.
With swimming meeting her expectations, Senkungu is excited for outdoor track season, where her specialties are the 800 and mile events.
Feeling Grateful
When Paul and Drusiella Senkungu came to the United States from Uganda to further their education, it led to building a family here.
Peace is their eldest of three girls. While middle-schooler Grace plays field hockey, Joy is a teammate on Bensalem’s cross-country and track teams.
“I like having my sister on my team,” said Senkungu. “We are able to motivate each other, and it is also a great way to spend time together.”
Led by their parents, the Broad Street Run was a family affair.
“It was nice to have family support,” said Senkungu, who relishes her parents’ heritage and trips to Uganda to see extended family.
This has led to her sewing and modeling an African-inspired dress in the school talent show and designing a prom dress.
“They were born and raised in Uganda,” she said of her parents. “I enjoy having that background, and learning about the culture. We try to go every two or three years.”
Senkungu holds enormous amounts of gratitude for “all the coaches who motivated me” and all the “friends who were always there to support me whenever I’m stressed and cheer me up and remind me of my goals.”
However, she realizes none of it would have been possible had her parents not made a new life for her and her sisters in America.
“Yes, I am happy about the opportunities I have,” she said. “If my parents stayed in Uganda, I still would have a great life, but it would be very different.”
Rising to Challenges
Putting sports aside, there is so much more to Senkungu that another descriptive term – well-rounded – may come up short.
She is a positive life force throughout the entire school community.
She has a course load of honors, gifted and AP-level classes while ranking in the top four percent of her class and sporting a weighted GPA of 4.16.
She is also involved in a multitude of extra-curricular activities, ranging from the president of the Varsity Club (a community service club for athletes with two varsity letters) to being a champion in the Reading Olympics since middle school to the Multi-Cultural Club in a school that celebrates Bensalem’s unique diversity to playing the mallet in the percussion band.
When she took on the challenge of being a three-sport athlete as a sophomore, time management became a difficult juggling act.
“I struggled my sophomore year, but I really learnd how to balance everything out,” she reflected. “I make sure to make use of my time, because time can be wasted. I have to make sure that I value my time by doing my homework around meets and practices. I have developed good time management skills.”
Those skills were mastered enough that Senkungu took on yet another challenge this year by joining the yearbook staff. She did so, in large part, to make sure there were no alternate facts about the many activities in which she and her classmates are involved, adding to her aready full plate and going about the task of continuing to make a difference.
“I looked last year, and there was some incorrect information,” she explained. “It’s good for someone in the clubs to work on those pages, and I’m happy to be a part of yearbook this year.
“I’m on the design team. Each person works on a different page. Right now, I’m working on the cross-country and the swimming pages. I like the idea that I can write about the different clubs that I’m a part of.”
Outside of school, Senkungu makes the most of her time. On Sundays, she can be found at the Neshaminy Valley Baptist Church making herself of service in the children’s program.
“I like children, so I help on Sundays,” said Senkungu, who holds the title of “team leader,” of course.
“I grew up being a part of it, so I like being able to give back.”
Looking Ahead
An aspiring doctor, Senkungu spent time at St. Mary’s Medical Center this past summer as a volunteer.
“It was a great opportunity,” she said. “I worked in the office in Bensalem, and I was able to talk and work with the nurses and help them with anything that they needed.
“I really enjoyed doing that over the summer.”
While she hopes to continue swimming and/or track at the intramural or club level in college, it is her focus on the future that is most important when choosing where she will be this time next year.
“I’m not sure yet what type of doctor I want to be, but I want to be some type of doctor,” said Senkungu, who plans to major in pre-med and/or biology. “I want to experience different areas in college.
Senkungu added that she wanted to be a doctor ever since she was young.
“As I got older, my interest just grew,” she said.
She has already received a full scholarship offer from West Chester and has been accepted at Temple and the University of the Sciences.
She is waiting to hear from George Washington, Lehigh and Penn State before making a final decision.
In the meantime, she plans to make the most of what time remains in her senior year.
“It is my last time to compete in high school,” she said. “In the past, I spent a lot of time on perfecting my techniques. Now, I’m determined to do my best.
“It’s always important to remember why you start something. That’s what motivates me. Like swimming, I worked hard at practice. I always thinks of how far I’ve come. Stuff like that keeps me persistent.”
