The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Madison’s Fedele relishes role of leader
You would have to go out of your way to not notice Zoey Fedele at a swim meet.
Out of the pool, the Madison sophomore is one of the sport’s most affable personalities in this area, outgoing and reflective beyond her years. In the pool, she is a hammer who has already shown she may very well be the leader for girls swimming among Lake County high schools in the present and future.
Fedele won the 100-yard butterfly and 200 freestyle this past weekend at the Division I SPIRE Sectional and goes into the D-I Cleveland State District with a solid shot at automatic berths to state in both events. She goes into CSU seeded fourth in 200 free and third in 100 fly.
She also goes into this postseason and the rest of her high school career with another facet to her journey that is unlike most of the competitors she will see: Fedele was a late starter and late bloomer in her craft.
“Actually, I started swimming in fifth grade,” Fedele said. “So I’ve been in the game a lot less time than everyone else has. Kind of like my (YMCA) coach (and former Madison standout) Greg Pristov — he was a late starter, too. I swam with the East End Otters — it’s the only team I’ve ever swam with. I’ve never done any club team or any of that — just YMCA.”
Swimming wasn’t necessarily on Fedele’s radar growing up — let alone being in the pool as a child getting their first taste of refinement and meaningful racing. It simply came along. “My stepsister (Chloe) — she swam and I got dragged to all the meets,” Fedele said. “So I’m like, ‘You know what? If I have to come to all the meets, I might as well swim in them.’ ”
Fast forward to being a ninth-grader for Madison a
year ago, and that decision has been one that has made an enormous impact for her school.
Last winter, she was Western Reserve Conference champion in 200 free and 100 fly. At the D-I SPIRE Sectional, she won 100 fly and was second in 200 free. And she scored as a freshman in the ultracompetitive D-I CSU District in 200 free (ninth) and 100 fly (13th).
And her times continue to drop. At SPIRE this past weekend as she repeated in 100 fly, she recorded a 57.97 — which was the exact same time she swam to also repeat at WRC last month. It
is also 2.78 seconds faster than her winning time at sectional a year ago.
In 200 free, she is a consistent sub-2:00 who has broken 1:58 at WRC and sectional this year and seems poised for more.
“I mean, hard work pays off,” Fedele said. “But if you would have asked me last year if a 57 (in 100 fly) was my time, I would probably laugh in your face.
“You have to have that drive. You swim for your first year and you’re like, ‘Man, I kind of like this.’ And then, you start going to more and more practices every day, you’re like, ‘Yeah, I like this.’ And then
once you get really good, you train even more.”
Fedele took training beyond the pool or the standard dryland work in the offseason — logging some time with the Madison wrestling team.
“Like this year, I took it a step further and I trained with my school’s wrestlers,” Fedele said. “That’s hard. It was really hard. They pushed me to my limit. We ran every morning. (Madison wrestling coach Andrew Tomaso), he would yell things at me, like, ‘Come on, district champ,’ and stuff like that. He would yell those motivating things at me.
Area swimming and diving top-20 district qualifiers
“Once you start, you get more and you just want more. You get a 57 — at WRC, I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, I got a 57.’ Now I’m like, ‘I need a 55.’ It’s like you just keep wanting more.”
Including — and especially — a state berth for her school. Madison has never had a top-four state placer in swimming and one top five at district since 1999 (her YMCA coach, Greg Pristov, who was fifth in boys D-I 200 free in 2009).
The Blue Streaks also hadn’t had a girls swimmer win a sectional title since 2000 — until Fedele did something about that.
Just when it seemed the
mantle of standard bearer for girls swimming among Lake County high schools was in some doubt after the graduation of Lake Catholic sprint free stalwart Silvija Taraska, there might be no need for doubt after all.
And you’d have to go out of your way not to notice.
“It’s always going to be cool to be a leader, and I feel like I’m kind of a natural-born leader because I’m kind of loud,” Fedele said. “I’m obnoxious. I’m good at pumping people up. I just don’t get nervous as much — sometimes I get nervous.
“But I go out there, and I just do it. Whatever I get, I’ll get other results later.”