Adriel Gonzalez Otero '22 Recruiting Profile

My name is Adriel Gonzalez.

I am a student, a musician, and a swimmer. I have been balancing these three most of my life. Despite limitations imposed by Hurricane Maria, recent earthquakes that impacted Puerto Rico & the COVID19 pandemic I have excelled in all of these because of my character.

Currently, I study in “Escuela Superior Vocacional República de Costa Rica” located in Caguas, Puerto Rico. This school requires an accredited technical course apart from all the classes a student would normally have. I chose to develop skills in Architectural drawing and design. Additionally, I have an after-hours curriculum in Antonio Paoli's Specialized School of Music, where I have achieved a 4.0 GPA. Still, with all that extra work I rank twenty-seventh in my school out of two hundred other students and hold a 3.81 GPA. Music and Architecture are a passion I have grown deep in my heart but my love for swimming has come naturally.

I've been involved in competitive swimming since I was six years old. In 2017, before Hurricane Maria impacted Puerto Rico and changed life as I knew it, I was a member of the PR Junior National Team. It was a challenging time due to the rigorous 2-3 times daily training with a strict quartering away from my family. This paid off as the team won the regional championships (CCCAN 2017 cat. 11-12).

Training both physically and mentally, eating right, and resting were hard after those natural disasters impacted Puerto Rico. Nonetheless thru hard work, I recently became Puerto Rican 15-16 champion in the fifty-meter freestyle, and I am back on track to fulfilling my goals. I am a swimmer that wants to accomplish greater things inside and outside of the water.

These experiences made me the person I am today. I have developed traits like discipline, resiliency, focus, and the drive to succeed. These circumstances have prepared me not just to balance Academics at the highest level with swimming but to thrive, becoming the best swimmer and student I can be. I will represent my university with pride and swim for the Puerto Rican Men’s National Swimming Team in the future to come.