Ardrey Kell swimmer Katherine Lang eyes her athletic future at Rutgers
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Ardrey Kell High School’s Katherine Lang has always loved participating in sports. She has played a team sport (soccer), and an individual sport (golf). However, swimming is her true passion and talent, and she loves that it contains elements of each.
“I love the duality of swimming where it can be both a team sport and an individual sport,” she says. “Growing up in competitive swimming, it is very much an individual sport. Everyone on the team practices together but at the end of the day, only you are responsible for the time on that stopwatch. However, high school swimming opened up the team aspect of this sport. You are no longer just swimming for individual times, cuts, or splits, you are doing it for a team.” One of her favorite aspects of high school swimming was the bond she shared with the women on her team. “I absolutely loved the camaraderie and passion that only occurred when the team came together,” she says.
Being on a team also taught Katherine the value of a good support system and investing in others. “During difficult practices, my teammates will look at each other on the wall and give little bits of encouragement to each other. A simple ‘you got this,’ or ‘one more, be strong,’ can be the difference maker between a good practice and a great practice. I’ve also learned that you get out of it what you put into it. If you buy into your team and what they want to accomplish, you will find a network of love and trust supporting your goals. It’s an incredible feeling to go to practice every day and know that everybody there genuinely cares about you and your success because they know you do the same for them. It’s an environment that breeds both athletic and personal success.”
As she wraps up her senior year, Katherine’s eyes are on the future. She received an academic scholarship to Rutgers University and will be swimming for their team. “I always dreamed of swimming in college, as I grew up in a club surrounded by collegiate athletes,” she says. Her next goal in the sport is to place at the Big 10 Conference meet, and she plans on studying Chemistry on a pre-med track.
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