Silver Lake’s Connors tops swim record
Outpaces 21-year-old freestyle time
KINGSTON — Alexa Connors just turned in another dominant performance in winning the 500yard freestyle at last week’s South Sectional swimming meet.
It wasn’t until Connors reached the podium that she found out just how memorable an effort she turned in.
The Silver Lake senior navigated the pool in a time of 4:51.24, snapping a 21year-old mark previously set by Gardner’s Samantha Arsenault (4:52.38).
“I didn’t know anything at the time because I couldn’t hear anything in the pool,” Connors said. “It wasn’t until I went up to receive my award that I first found out and I was in shock. It just showed me that hard work pays off.”
Even though Connors was the defending champion and the premier 500-yard freestyle swimmer in the state, she didn’t take the event for granted. She pointed to Cohasset’s Emily Appleton as someone who could contend and shouldn’t be overlooked.
“I knew there was going to be some competition,” Connors said. “I looked at the seed times and I was 5:04 and Emily was 5:08. I just wanted to swim efficiently and stay long. I think in the first 200, I kind of established an efficient stroke and after that, I picked up my temp.”
Connors first started swimming in her grandfather’s pool at the age of 6, then tried out for the renowned Kingfish Swimming two years later. She made the club team and has been a mainstay there for the better part of a decade.
“My parents weren’t sure I was going to make it,” Connors said. “One of the biggest thing Kingfish has helped is with time management. I’m in here swimming 20 hours a week, so it’s taught me to manage my time between swimming and school.”
Because of the advanced training at an early age, Connors arrived at Silver Lake as a polished product. She placed in the top four in both the 200- and 500-yard freestyle events as a freshman.
“Alexa has always been dedicated to her sport,” said Silver Lake coach Matt Peck, who started the program in 2006. “She started up young and is determined to be the best she can be both inside and outside the pool.”
Connors was the dominant distance swimmer in the state last winter. She won the South Sectional in the 200 (1:51.10) and 500 (4:55.72), then duplicated the effort at the Div. 1 states. She won the 200 in 1:50.84, then took home the Div. 1 title in 4:53.14.
Those efforts put her squarely on the radar of several Div. 1 college swim programs. Connors eventually settled on the University of Richmond, signing her National Letter of Intent last fall.
“The recruiting process is overwhelming, it’s very easy to get caught up in it with the big schools and the Division 1 offers,” Connors said. “Richmond is a smaller campus, you get more attention from professors, more interacting with the students on a 1-on-1 basis.
“I also liked the culture of the team, that’s what really sold it. The girls on the team were really super to me.”
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