Loomis swims up to her potential
FRANKLIN — Franklin girls swimming coach Jess Pridham kept hearing stories four years ago about a phenom heading her way.
It didn’t take Pridham long to realize that Ashley Loomis was all that and then some.
Loomis made her mark as a ninth grader, winning the South sectional title in the 200-yard and 500-yard freestyles, then capturing the Division 1 championship in the 500.
Pridham smiles when recounting the tales of her initial encounters with Loomis.
“Her former teammates on the club team kept telling me that someone special is coming along and just wait,” said Pridham, affectionately known as Coach P. “I kept saying that I’ll believe it when I see it. The first time I saw her in the pool, I was blown away.
“You look at her and she looks like an average teenager, your everyday Jane Q. But once she’s gets into that pool, everything she does there turns to what I like to say liquid gold.”
Loomis grew up with a pool in her backyard and loved using it on a daily basis. With the outdoor swimming season somewhat limited to a few months in these parts, Loomis asked her mother to sign her up for lessons at the local club.
It was there where Loomis honed her skills.
“When I was 10 years old, they kept putting me in events like the 200 and 500 and I liked it,” Loomis said. “As I got older, I stayed with it and the training helped me a lot.”
It certainly helped her as a freshman at Franklin. Loomis wasted little time in making her mark, winning the South title in the 200 (1:55.97) and 500 (5:09.17). She went on to win that Div. 1 state title in the 500 (5:01.76), while finishing behind All-Scholastics Corinne Carbone of Holliston/Medway and Sarah Welch of Beverly in the 200 (1:53.98).
“I really wasn’t expecting to do that well as a freshman, so it was a big surprise,” Loomis said. “I think that helped because I didn’t put any pressure on myself.”
Loomis has proven she is no flash in the pan. She pulled off the 200-500 double in each of the past two seasons at both the sectional and state meets. One of the top swimming recruits in the state, she will take her talents to Yale in the fall.
“I wasn’t expecting to fall in love with the place the first time I went there, but I did,” Loomis said. “I loved coach (Jim) Henry, loved the team and all the positive feelings them. I always wanted to go to an Ivy League school and this was a nice match of academics and athletics for me.”