Ubonwan Pinjipinyo
Pierce College swimmer Christina Courtney, 20, suffered an injury in her right shoulder during the swim event at the State Championships at Saddleback College.
Courtney qualified to swim for the State Championships, but she had not completed two events and came back home early, according to head coach Fred Shaw.
“It’s really heart-breaking for me,” Courtney said. “It’s hard for me to talk about the injury because you work so hard to get to that point and you can’t complete it.”
Courtney is getting a lot of rest and taking weeks off from swimming to allow her shoulder to rejuvenate.
“I would like to continue swimming and hopefully improve enough to actually make it to the Olympic trial,” she said. “That’s actually my goal, my huge goal. That’s all I want. Every swimmer has that dream in the back of their heads. They want to make it that far.”
Courtney is the only female on the Pierce swimming team.
“I think she did a great job,” said athletic director Bob Lofrano. “She went all the way to state and was a good swimmer. Obviously, we would like more people to participate. But this year, she was the lone ranger on the swim team.”
“We have to go out and recruit the local high school girls who swim,” he added, “and that’s the coach’s responsibility – to build up the team, in term of numbers.”
John Vowels, swimming pool supervisor, said sometimes the team has more women, sometimes not. He added that coach Fred Shaw works with high schools to try to recruit an equal number of male and female swimmers.
“This season, I’ve improved a lot and I am already starting to train for 2009 season,” said Eryk Hackman, an 18-year-old swimmer on the team. “I already have my goal time that I want to achieve. I’m not going to stop.”
Kevin Leveredge said he could not continue on the swim team because he completed his two years of eligibility. He also said his coach is one of the nicest coaches he ever had, caring about individuals as well as the team.
“I just grew up a lot more than last year being here at Pierce,” Courtney said. “My coaches were amazing.”