Jenny Hill, Urbana High School

 

 

When did you start swimming? How did you get started? What teams or clubs have you swum with?

 

My brother and I started taking swim lessons, basically year-round, with the Urbana Park District. At age nine I found myself on the team at Windsor Swim Club and had David Danenhower as my first coach. After that summer I started swimming once a week at Storm Aquatics and then gradually began coming to more practices. I swam on Aquachiefs for one season when I was in 7^th grade and then returned to Storm. Heat was formed the next year, and I have been a member of Heat ever since.

 

What are your college plans? Will you swim? What will you major in?

 

I have been accepted to the University of Chicago, and unless anything unexpected happens, I will matriculate and join (former Heat swimmer) Tatum Stewart on the swim team! I have recently started to consider majoring in mathematics. Otherwise, I can see myself majoring in a science, such as chemistry.

 

What have you learned from swimming?

 

I have to recite the clich� phrases because they are just so important and true: success does not come easily; we are capable of more than we imagine at first; hard work never goes unrewarded; laziness has a price. But hopefully we each take away something else from our personal swimming experiences. The sport of swimming has taught me about what swimming really is- just a sport. The more fun I�m having with it, the faster I go. When we make activities like swimming into jobs, they become less fun for us, and we start to lose interest.

 

What is your favorite swimming memory?

 

Many random events come to my mind: pushing Coach Ed Pacey into the water after winning a meet, IHSA Sectionals, Windsor Swim club end-of year banquets, setting UIAC pool records, seeing Olympic swimmers at Grand Prix meets, and late-night bus rides back home from high school meets.

 

What is your favorite event? Least favorite?

 

I think the 200 IM has become a favorite of mine. You can be mediocre at all 4 strokes and still be an awesome IMer. The 50 free and 100 breast also have special places in my heart. But 100 IM is the best (and I wish I could still swim it)! As for my least favorite event, I would say the 500 free, but I don�t think I have swum it enough to fully appreciate it.

 

What is your favorite movie? Favorite food? Favorite place?

 

My favorite movie is a 1980 film called The Gods Must Be Crazy. This movie made me realize how complex Western society is, and it uses my kind of humor. My favorite food is usually whatever I�m eating at the moment, but my mom�s fried spaghetti is probably my all-time favorite. I like to think of it as an Italian dish with an American twist- sizzling it in oil! My favorite place to go is probably the area near the corner of Oregon and Nevada Streets on campus. Manolo�s and Espresso Royale are there, as well as the U of I Music Building and Krannert Center, where I have seen performances by violinists Joshua Bell and Itzhak Perlman.

 

What 3 people would you invite to dinner?

 

I would invite Itzhak Perlman and tell him how life-changing it was to see him at Krannert, Freddie Mercury (deceased lead singer of the band Queen) and thank him for his contributions to music, and finally a famous composer like Mozart or Tchaikovsky, but would probably need a translator to talk to either of them. The other dinner scenario I can imagine would be inviting any three of my grandparents. They would tell me about our family history and how the world was when they were alive.

 

Tell us something about yourself that people might find surprising or interesting.

 

My brother and I have been taking horseback riding lessons for almost 10 years! Also, I have two nieces, Sophia and Mahoney, and one nephew, Samuel.