Willow Pezone '23 Recruiting Profile

Hi, my name is Willow Pezone.

Although I have always been a strong swimmer, I have only been swimming competitively since September 2021. In my year of racing so far, I have dropped significant time in all my events and plan on continuing to do so. 

My best events are the 50 and 100 free, but I also enjoy racing the 100 fly. For my freshman year of high school I attended Coast Redwood High School, a public charter school in San Lorenzo Valley, California. Many of my classes for the last three years years have been college dual enrollment courses, such as U.S. History, Algebra and English. Two interesting facts about me are that I play guitar and the beach is my favorite place.

My main passion is swimming in the ocean. I have been a part of the Santa Cruz Junior Lifeguard program for about seven years. Thanks to the Santa Cruz City Beach Lifeguards, I learned about ocean safety at a young age and quickly developed a love for the water. In the summer of 2022, I became a Santa Cruz City lifeguard and worked over 350 hours at the beach! I spent many of those hours instructing the Junior Lifeguard program and teaching kids ages 6-16 ocean and medical safety. My experience so far as a beach lifeguard has taught me the true meaning of responsibility, leadership, physical ability and courage, as well as many crucial lifesaving skills. 

Besides lifeguarding, another activity that has positively impacted my swimming is gymnastics. I was a gymnast for about 10 years total, half of which I spent as part of a competitive team. Gymnastics will always be important to me, even though I recently quit in order to focus more on reaching my swimming goals. I believe that most of my swim strength came from my countless hours in the gym, which made me strong both physically and mentally.

What I am looking forward to the most in the next year is continuous improvement in both my swim technique and speed. I have two amazing coaches that have already helped me improve my strokes and drop time in all of my events. I will continue to focus on my goals and expect to see more progress throughout this season.