Matthew Walden '24 Recruiting Profile

I started swimming in the year of 2022, as a result of an injury during my cross country season that prevented me from doing Winter Track. While taking lessons as a child, I was told that I may want to consider swimming competitively, but never really embraced the idea. When I started with the training as a walk-on, having not swam with the school previously, I spoke with the coach after they had already started with practice and conditioning to see if they would allow me to join the team. I was welcomed onto the team, even though they had started a few weeks prior. I quickly found that I enjoyed the teamwork and environment to help me improve week after week. While I may not have as much experience as most other swimmers my age, I developed a burning passion for the sport. I was able to rapidly improve my time across multiple events. A good example of this is in the 100m freestyle,where I improved from a time of about 1:30s when I started to a 1:05s converted (58s 100yd) by the end of the season. I have made great progress for only having swam one season. I expect to bring this passion and commitment to my senior season (2023-2024) as well as any college that I may be fortunate enough to swim for. One of the attributes that I bring to any school, that I am most proud of, is my flexibility and adaptability to meet the needs of the team in an event so that we are all successful. The school that I swim for will have my commitment to learn, listen, and always perform at my best. All I ask of any school is that you push and challenge me to be the best that I can possibly be.