Christian Ceja '24 Recruiting Profile

My name is Christian Ceja and I have lived in Brentwood, California for my entire life. I swim for the Terrapins Swim Team and at Liberty High School.  I am currently a junior in high school and am still trying to figure out my interests in terms of college classes, but I have some ideas of what I would like to study in college. I am interested in majoring in kinesiology or mathematics. Similarly, in swimming I am still developing and working hard to improve and I hope to swim Division 1, but academics is most important to me so I want to find the college that is academically best for me and gives me the opportunity to compete at the highest level of swimming possible. 

In terms of athletics, while I have always lived in the same town, I have traveled outside of the area in order to improve my abilities in sports for as long as I can remember. I started swimming at the age of six for a recreational summer team, the Aquaknights. After four seasons on the Aquaknights I realized that in order to be the best athlete I can, I should try and find the program that best suits me for training and competing. This prompted me to transition to a summer team named the Dana Hills Otters and after two seasons joined the year-round Terrapins Swim Team. This required an extensive commute to practice daily, but I have seen massive improvement over the past few years, showing the value of my decision to join Terrapins. I have also sustained two injuries while swimming for them, (two broken arms that happened outside of the pool) but when I returned to training I picked up right where I left off and pushed myself to recover. I was quickly able to regain my previous ability and continue to persevere and get better in practice. I have also been moved to the Senior Group for two years and this has put me into a leadership role on the Terrapins. I have used this opportunity to work hard, support the younger groups, and get to know younger swimmers to create a positive environment. I can use this experience and apply it to a collegiate level team to create team unity. 

In terms of academics, they have always been incredibly important to me, and have been stressed to me by my parents. This allowed me to excel in the classroom and manage my time more efficiently. My hefty training schedule requires that I find the best way to get all of my homework completed. This pushed me to evaluate my free time and get my homework done whenever I got the opportunity, including in the car on the way to practice. This excellent time management has continuously granted straight A's in all of my classes, and will continue to bless me as I continue my college recruiting process. I have also been in numerous extracurricular activities in addition to swimming including Odyssey of the Mind, ASB Leadership, CSF, NHS, and a junior coach for a summer recreational team. All of these activities have let me participate in volunteering, communication, and teamwork. I believe these skills will prove to be valuable assets I bring to any team. 

The combination of all these factors throughout my life has no doubt prepared me to thrive in college both academically and athletically, and I am extremely excited to see where it takes me in life.