Amelia Martin is a sophomore at St. Dominic who recently went to State for the St. Dominic Swim team. Within her sport, she is utilizing a talent she’s had ever since she was young.

Martin represented St. Dominic High School in the MSHSAA competition. She worked extremely hard and trained many times a week in order to compete in State this year. She has been swimming since she was a little girl and all of the past time and dedication put towards swimming finally paid off for Martin.

After swimming for her summer league, Martin decided to join a swim club to get more into swimming and swim with other people. 

“I started swimming for a summer league when I was seven years old, but I started swimming competitively at eight,” Martin said.

Martin went from a swim league to swimming and competing with the SCCY. Making that transition helped her to branch out and be comfortable with swimming.

“After the head coach at YOFM left, the majority of the swimmers switched to different club teams to continue their swimming careers,” Martin said, “I switched to SCCY (St. Charles YMCA), along with most of my friends, so it was easier switching to a team when I knew some of the people I would be swimming with. I made a lot of new friends which gave me more of a liking for this sport and having teammates who supported each other gave me more reasons to continue swimming. “

Martin continued to swim and ended up competing in a few meets when she was young. During her club season, her aunts, who swam in college, would come to watch some of her meets. Even though her aunts did not have a direct impact on her swimming, their showing up and offering support helped her when she was younger.

“My extended family hasn’t really had an impact on my swimming, but there have been times where my cousins or aunts and uncles came to watch me race at meets when I was younger,” Martin said,

After the club season ended, she still had a passion for swimming. Martin decided to join the St. Dominic Swim team after being on the Field Hockey team from her freshman to her sophomore year.

With the help from her coaches, she was able to regain her love for the sport, after taking a step back from it previously. Her coaches have helped her harness her swimming ability and perfect it.

“My high school coaches have definitely given me more confidence in my abilities and they have all helped me to gain back the love I had for the sport before I slowly started drifting from it,” Martin said.

Martin is not the only person who thinks this way. One of her coaches, Ms. Victoria Mennemeier, has also noticed the impressive improvement and skill Martin has gained and shown throughout her time on the swim team. 

“Amelia has grown so much since joining the team,” Mennemeier said, “She pushes herself to be better every time she gets in the pool & she continuously beats her PR for the 100 breaststroke. She even shaved off 2 seconds in that event at State. We are just so proud of all of her hard work.” 

One of her teammates, junior Lailah Tocco has also seen Matins’ improvement firsthand.

“Amelia has greatly improved her times and broke many of her PRs during her time on the swim team!” Tocco said.

Martin went to State for St. Dominic on February 15 at the Rec Plex. She qualified in multiple State events, but ultimately, she competed in only one of her qualifications.

“I qualified for State in a few events, but I only swam the 100 breast at the actual meet. The amount of time I spent training for State, especially working on my starts and turns, has definitely helped me to improve more,” Martin said.

Martin had her whole team behind her back when competing. Her coach Ms. Mennemeier said that she was proud of her whole team, especially Amelia, on the morning of the competition.

”I was very excited and happy for her when we all found out she was going to State,” Tocco said, “I knew she would do great!” 

“Our team really rallied behind Amelia when she made it to state. The morning of, our team group chat was flooded with good luck texts from her teammates. That made me so proud of not only Amelia but the other girls on our team. They were all truly happy and excited for her!” Ms. Mennemeier said. 

Martin has made many improvements throughout her swim career at St. Dominic. She impresses all her teammates and the students, faculty, and staff.

“We are all very proud of the swimmer she has become and know she has a potentially great future in her swimming career!” Tocco said.

Everyone at St. Dominic and all the girls on her swim team are very proud of her and her accomplishments in the State Competition. Going to State is a huge thing that requires a very skillful person to compete and Amelia was just that person for St. Dominic.