Friends encouraged athlete to swim

February 16, 2018

At the urging of a group of friends at Seymour, Abigail Davis decided to join the swim team her junior year.

She said it was a good decision.

“A lot of it was social,” she said. “I’m a very social person, so I came out because my friends were doing it, and I was encouraged by other girls who had been swimming their whole life. I know all these girls, and I said, ‘Why not try it?’ and I ended up liking it. I liked how we all supported each other, not only in the pool but outside the pool, too.”

David said swimming is hard and challenging, but it pushed her, so she came back out this winter for her senior season.

“Swimming is a lot more mental and emotional than I thought it would be. That’s a lot of hard work just in itself,” she said. “I think mental is more than half of it. Yes, you do have to be athletic, and you have to be coordinated for sure, but I think you have to have a positive mindset to be able to say, ‘I’m going to go out and do it.’ Then you are able to do what you said you could do. It’s all about believing in yourself, I think.”

For most of the season, Davis swam the freestyle sprints.

“I liked the 50 free and 100 free,” she said. “You had to have fast flip turns for sure because you don’t want to slow down on your flip turns.”

She also competed in relays, noting her favorite was the 200 freestyle relay, and occasionally competed in the 100 breaststroke or 100 backstroke.

Before every meet, Davis said she focused on the events she was going to swim.

“We would start warming up by doing a couple 100s,” she said. “If I had a specialty event that I had to do, like a breaststroke, I would do a 100 of that just to get into the groove, doing something that was not freestyle.”

Coach Dave Boggs gave the swimmers time to do their turns and starts.

“During our turns, I could do a freestyle turn easily, but a backstroke or a breaststroke turn, I had to work more on that, so I would work on that a lot, work on the specialty events that I usually don’t do in a practice,” Davids said.

In practices, she said she always tried to work hard.

“I think practices are mainly about getting ready for the meets that are coming up and staying in shape so you don’t lose anything,” she said. “Those are definitely harder practices — more yards, longer swims. The New Year’s Eve practice is kind of what we’re known for — the 100 100s or the 100 75s. It seemed a lot easier this year than last year for me, just last year it was my first year.”

David said she enjoyed swimming in the high school pool.

“I love home meets way more than away meets just because we were home and our friends and family were able to be there, and I liked to see (bleachers) filled,” she said. “I preferred home meets because we didn’t get home as late. They’re easier for athletes.”

Outside of the pool, Davis is in a work-based learning program in the afternoons, working with first-graders at Emerson Elementary School.

“I love that,” she said. “I am really thankful that we are able to do work-based learning.”

Davis also likes participating in other school activities and sporting events.

“I like to go to the basketball games and go out and have fun with my friends, and the fact that I’m in a safe place really makes me feel good,” she said. “I like the teachers and how we’re a community.”

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Name: Abigail Davis

School: Seymour High School

Parents: Jeff and Tessy Davis

Siblings: Brandon, Adam and Elizabeth

Sports: Swimming, two years; cross-country, two years; track and field, two years

Organizations: Band, Riley Dance Marathon committee, Fellowship of Christian Athletes

Plans after high school: Attend Franklin College and major in elementary education

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