Even though her high school, Academy of the Sacred Heart in Bloomfield Hills, does not have a swim program, Szydlowski was offered a scholarship as a member of the Oakland Live Y'ers Swim Club. Wochit
Caroline Szydlowski is a high-caliber competitive swimmer who attends Academy of the Sacred Heart High School in Bloomfield Hills.
Even though Sacred Heart does not sponsor a varsity swim team, Szydlowski will attend the University of Kentucky on a swim scholarship.
How in the world did that happen?
It's simple.
Szydlowski is a product of the nationally-renowned Oakland Live Y'ers Swim Club.
The 18-year-old Sacred Heart senior has been in the Live Y'ers program since age 6. She's elevated her talents to the point where Kentucky swim officials, in particular former Olympian and head coach Lars Jorgensen, were excited to recruit the talented long-distance swimmer.
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Jeff Cooper, the longtime Live Y'ers head coach, is not surprised.
"Caroline is good enough and her potential is definitely an upside," said Cooper, in his 31st year of coaching, the last 23 for the Live Y'ers. "She is a big, strong girl. She's built like a Division I swimmer.
"I've known Lars for years and he was one of the best distance swimmers in the country," he added. "He's a distance-minded coach, so he knows what her potential is going to be at that level. It's really a good fit for her."
Falling for the campus
Szydlowski said she went to Kentucky on a visit with her parents between her sophomore and junior years and fell in love with the campus.
The Oakland Township resident committed to Kentucky at the beginning of this school year and signed her national letter of intent Nov. 8 at Sacred Heart. She had considered Iowa, Denison (Ohio) University and Miami (Ohio) University, but Lexington was really her heartfelt destination all along.
"I don't know if it was a goal, but I always expected to swim in college, wherever it would be," said Szydlowski, who plans to major in pre-med. "Kentucky has a great team with great academics and has a great environment overall. I'm really looking forward to it."
Szydlowski said she simply worked hard in academics during the day at Sacred Heart while pursuing per passion for swimming with the Live Y'ers after school hours. She was never bothered by the fact Sacred Heart did not have a swim team.
"I never really paid much attention to it, that we didn't have (a swim team at Sacred Heart). because I was swimming at OLY all year around," Szydlowski said. "It wasn't like I wasn't swimming at all during the high school season.
"OLY is a very elite team, so training with them would very much help me to swim in college," she added. "They work you very hard, so that you're ready for anything."
Improvement in the pool
As a young swimmer, Szydlowski started her career at Twin Lakes Country Club, spent time with the Utica-Shelby Swim Club and ultimately earned a roster spot with the Live Y'ers.
She made her first big splash with the Rochester-based club in the 10-under division, when she was a member of two club-record relays teams (200 medley and 200 free), both of which stand to this day.
As Szydlowski advanced through the age divisions, she made constant improvement. By the time she entered Sacred Heart, she began to find her niche as a distance freestyler.
Szydlowski now specializes in the mile freestyle (66 lengths), 1,000 free (40 lengths) and 500 free (20 lengths). Considered one of the nation's top distance racers, she swim the mile in less than 17 minutes.
"You practice for (the mile) by doing pace. You usually don't think about how long it is," she said. "I usually don't look at the counter until it says, like, 60. I don't mind doing that long of a race at all."
If she competed in high school, Szydlowski would be one of the state's top 500-yard freestylers (the longest race on the prep circuit). The high school girls season runs from August through November and includes multiple dual meets, a few invitationals and, ultimately, the state championship meet.
The Live Y'ers, by contrast, have a competitive meet roughly every month, including the MCSA Closed Holiday Invitational recently hosted by the Flint YMCA. She figures to again compete in the nationals next March in Orlando as one of the country's top long-distance swimmers.
"Caroline was a very good swimmer when she was younger. She wasn't exceptional, but she was good," said Cooper, a former 13-time All-America swimmer and team captain at Oakland University. "When she got to be about a sophomore in high school is when she started to come on the scene. She started to train at a much higher level.
"What was happening is that she was getting stronger, getting bigger through our process by laying a big aerobic foundation when she was younger. All of a sudden, you start swimming faster when you get older. The kids start separating themselves as high-level swimmers and start competing at a high level nationally.
"Her strength is that she has a fantastic aerobic capacity," he added. "Much like a marathon runner, Caroline has a fantastic aerobic engine. A lot of that is natural, but she can just maintain a pretty high aerobic pace for a long time. A lot of kids can't do that. It's just a gift she has."
Prepared by Sacred Heart
Szydlowski is not the only Live Y'ers standout who will swim in college next year without having participated on a high school team.
Twins Claire and Lucy Schenden are seniors at Rochester Hills Stoney Creek and will swim next year at Michigan State University. Unlike Szydlowski's situation at Sacred Heart, Stoney Creek does have a varsity swim team.
Samantha Ekleberry was not a member of Auburn Hills Avondale's girls swim team, but will take her talents to the University of Toledo.
Justin Glanda, a Rochester resident and 2011 Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood High School graduate, skipped his first three years of prep swimming while working with OLY. As a senior, Glanda opted to swim for the Cranes and led them to a second-place team finish at the Division 3 state meet, where he was a double individual event (200 free, 100 fly) champion.
"It's very common in our program to have kids go to college who didn't swim in high school," said Cooper, who estimates he's had a minimum of 150 kids attend college at all different levels during his tenure with OLY. "I've been here for 23 years and, more than not, the kids who are getting scholarships are the kids who are with us but didn't swim high school.
"It's not that they don't want to swim high school. High school swimming is great. With Caroline, there was no option, since her high school did not have swimming.
"What's unique for us is our program is designed as basically a five- to six-year development process," he added. "When kids are in seventh and eighth grade and they come into our program for the first time, that begins the process of where I try to get them to by the time they are 17 or 18 years old — getting them ready to go off to college."
It was the Oakland Live Y'ers program that prepared Szydlowski for college athletics. Sacred Heart provided the excellent academic experience for which she will forever be grateful.
"Sacred Heart is a great school," she said. "It really prepares you for a lot. It's really hard academically and it keeps you busy. "
Szydlowski plans to maintain that same rigorous work ethic she learned at OLY and ASH at Kentucky.
mbudner@hometownlife.com