Erica ’11 has tried her hand at almost half a dozen sports. She was a gymnast for seven years, a soccer player for five, and a runner for the track and cross country teams in eighth and ninth grades. Now, though, Erica has finally chosen: the small, wiry sophomore is a full-time swimmer.

Erica joined the varsity swim team as a ninth grader, currently captains a club team, and has been swimming for her entire career at Marlborough.

After participating as a serious athlete in a wide range of sports, Erica decided to focus on swimming with the Marlborough team and the Hancock Park Swim Club. She had practiced gymnastics at the Santa Monica Gymnastics Center for two years, then gone to the Los Angeles School of Gymnastics for five years, and finally gone to the All Olympians Gymnastics Center for a year before quitting gymnastics.

“I only swim now because I knew I was doing a lot of sports, but I had to choose one,” Erica said. “I chose swimming because I love it. It is probably the favorite of all the sports I’ve done.”
According to Georgia ’10, a team captain, Erica is a great leader who truly cares about the group.

“She is such a dedicated swimmer, and she’s just really cheerful all the time,” Georgia said. “She’s always at practice and has amazing times.”

Erica normally swims six days a week with the team, in addition to a few club practices after as well. She has already broken a couple of relay records and hopes to break some individual records as well.

Erica said that she decided to participate in both club and school sports because she “can never get enough swimming, and the only way to get better is to keep practicing.”

Erica said that she knows her team very well and talks to them outside of practice all the time. Instead of being intimidated by the majority of upperclassmen, Erica said she thinks they make the practices much more interesting and fun.

“I’m going to be so upset when they leave; so upset,” Erica said. “We are so bonded, and everyone is always there for each other.”