Maliya Walp '26 Recruiting Profile

Hi, my name is Maliya Walp and I am now going into my Sophmore year at Catasauqua High School.   I have been swimming on a swim team since I am 5 years old. I am a very hard-working, dedicated, competitive swimmer who strives to get better with every swim. I am a well-rounded swimmer that swims all strokes.  I want to continue my competitive swimming throughout my college years. 

A lot has changed for me in the past year with my swimming career.  Being that my high school did not have a swim team and I was always swimming with my club team, this past year I got the opportunity to swim independently as the first-ever Catasauqua High School swimmer. With the help of the PIAA, my high school and my club swim coaches I was able to compete in Varsity swim meets with the neighboring Northampton High School Varsity Swim Team.  Although it was an adjustment now being an independent swimmer, I got challenged with having to compete in almost all of the swim meet events by myself but I had so much support from the team to push me through. Being an independent swimmer now meant I can only compete in individual events with no relay events but I was just happy with being given this opportunity to be able to continue to share my passion for swimming and represent my school district.  

I received my personal best times during the varsity season in the 50 Free and 100 Back, to me that was a huge accomplishment!  Knowing that I did that in an event while swimming the events by myself with no one swimming next to me to push me was so exciting.  I qualified for Districts in both of these events, but being that the school I swim with is a AAA school and my school is AA I had to attend a different session at Districts than the rest of my "teammates".  I had the support from the varsity coach to attend that session with me and was very proud of myself that I got there.  I was able to meet other independent swimmers and hear about their experiences as well.  

I am now going into my 2nd season as an independent swimmer and am looking forward to what is to come and continuing my journey as an independent swimmer for my school through my high school years.  I am hoping that I can get more Catasauqua students interested in swimming and we someday can have a swim team.  

When I am not swimming as an independent swimmer, I am swimming year-round with my club team participating in USA Swimming meets.