Past: Hamber Griffins and Richmond Rapids
Present: Watermania
Future: NCAA Div. 1 University of Pennsylvania Quakers
As good as the last year has been for Serena Xue, the light is only just beginning to shine bright for the 18-year-old breaststroke specialist.
She competed at nationals for the first time and this spring also raced at the Olympic trials. She won multiple medals at the B.C. swim championship in March in the 50, 100 and 200 metre breaststroke events. She holds four records for the Richmond Rapids and led the Hamber Griffins at the high school championships last winter.
This is just lately. It wasn’t until her final year of high school that she made the provincial team for the first time, tossing aside examples set by other swimmers who burned out after early growth-spurts and plateaued as their personal best times grew ever distant. Xue took the long road, the dedicated route of a patient technician.
In a word, “Tenacity. She has it,” said Richmond Rapids swim director Robert Pettifer. “She was definitely not the most successful age as a young and developing swimmer. She has really had to work hard, all the way.”
Xue may not have been a “young star,” as her coach put it, but could be a star of the future and is not only improving but surpassing her peers. The difference has been her attitude and commitment to technical advancement and uncovering the innate grace for what is for many racers an inefficient way to move through the water. “She has learned over time to value attention to detail and do all the little thigs well,” said Pettifer. “She is not one to make excuses or miss practices. She finds a way to be at the pool and train. She manages her life and doesn’t need any shepherding.”
Mike Schnur recognized the same traits of the future Ivy League economics student. “She has this desire for success that came through really from the first day we stated recruiting her,” said the head swim coach of the University of Pennsylvania Quakers who’s led the program for 15 seasons and was the university’s first NCAA champion swimmer. “Everybody loved her. She had this unyielding desire to be good.”
Xue joins a Quakers team on the rise, just like her emerging talent. Her best performances in the 100 and 200-metre short course distances would have placed her in the finals of the 2015 Ivy Women’s Championship, according to varsity sports website swimswam.com.
“She soaked up everything and can’t wait to get to work,” said Schnur.
For Xue, early mornings in the water and twice-daily practices bring their own reward. “I really love it. I love to swim.”
That fact is sparklingly clear.
