Jennings County High School senior Avery Witt approaches the starting block at the Floyd Central girls swimming sectional, where last week she set a school and personal record time in the 100-meter backstroke. Witt is competing in the state meet this weekend.
By Hannah Webster
Jennings County High School senior Avery Witt is making her third appearance this weekend at the IHSAA girls swimming state championship. The meet will began at the Indiana University Natatorium at IUPUI yesterday and continues today.
Witt secured her spot last weekend by winning the 100-meter backstroke at the IHSAA Floyd Central Sectional Championship. In doing so, she broke her own school record and achieved a personal goal of breaking one minute with a time of 59.76.
Witt said breaking her own school record was the happiest she has felt all season and shows that all of her hard work had paid off. In her swimming career at Jennings County High School, Witt is a six-time JCHS record-holder, three-time Hoosier Hills Conference all-conference swimmer and now a four-time sectional champion.
When asked her secret to success is, Witt said, “making sure that I worked hard and having a mindset of wanting to do great things.”
However, swimming is not easy, and she had to face some challenges, “not only being physical, like sickness and asthma, but the mental block and finding the right mentality to get into the pool every day.”
Witt’s mom, Abby Stearns, said, “she had been trying to break a minute for over four years” and “every year, she’d get a little closer” Stearns said a quote from Olympic champion Michael Phelps provided inspiration: “If you want to be the best, you have to do things that other people aren’t willing to do.”
Morgan Webster has been the head boys and girls swim coach for the past three years, his first year being Witt’s first year on the JCHS team. Webster said “coaching someone that was already incredibly talented when they came to the team” taught him many lessons, “the most important being that a coach is only as good as a swimmer allows them to be.”
“Avery has always had a determination to be great,” Webster said. “It has been rewarding to watch her progress as both a swimmer and a person as a year round athlete.”
Congratulations to Avery Witt on an amazing swim season and best of luck at the state championships. You make Jennings County High School proud!
Hannah Webster is a Jennings County High School student columnist. Send comments to [email protected].
