At 13 years old, Andrew Truxall stepped on the block for his first meet, the freestyle. Andrew fixed his swim cap and tightened his goggles. The announcer began the countdown, “swimmers take your mark” the announcer went, and the buzzer rang. Suddenly, Andrew dove into the pool and sliced through the water. Each stroke he became faster and faster until he appeared to be flying. He reached the finished line in a matter of seconds. Andrew climbed out of pool surrounded by friends and his family all congratulating him on and amazing race. “I don’t remember what place I got that day, I just remember being really nervous.” Andrew said with a smile recalling his first swim meet. Little did he know, this was just the start of his swimming career.   

Andrew is now a senior at HSE and continued to swim for the next 4 years then decided to take on his next challenge, lifeguarding. “I remember just seeing him blow the whistle and immediately jump out of his chair” said Tyler Fiddler, a coworker of Andrew’s. “next think we know he’s carrying a little boy out of the water.” Thankfully the boy was okay. “If it wasn’t for Andrew things would’ve ended very badly” Fiddler mentioned.  

Somehow between saving lives and swim practice, Andrew manages to find time to compete in the state swim meet and build a strong relationship with his younger brother. “Having my brother on the team with me is a really good bonding experience for us”, Andrew says. Before his brother started high school swimming they had little time to spend with each other. Now they get to bond on the car rides to five am practices. “swimming has brought us closer than ever”, Andrew claims.  

He says, “overall [swimming] is very fun and I love competing with other and it’s also very challenging and I feel like that [challenge] gives me the drive to keep on swimming.”