Alexander Ries '26 Recruiting Profile

My name is Alex Ries. I'm a Junior at Fort Bragg High School in Northern California. I've been swimming with my club swim team for seven years. Fort Bragg is a rural, remote part of the Mendocino Coast. Although it's a really beautiful place to live, it's very difficult to pursue sports competitively here. I am only able to have four team practices a week with my club. Each practice is an hour and a half, which only gives me a total of 6 hours in the pool each week. I didn't realize until about a year ago that a lot of my friends on other teams practice closer to 20 hours a week. In addition, every swim meet I attend is at least 2 to 3 hours from where I live. So it has taken a huge commitment of time and energy from my family to allow me to compete at a high level, which I'm extremely thankful for. Swimming in college has been my dream for many years. I've worked very hard academically and I'm currently ranked first in my Junior class. I'm also continuing to improve my swim times in all events, and currently hold school records in 7 of 8 individual events. I expect my Junior swim season to end with me qualifying for North Coast Section Championships with best times across the board. I hope you will consider me for your swim program.