With just a week to decide how she would spend the fall of her senior year, Krista Windjue debated between spending all her time at the pool practicing her breaststroke, or not swimming at all. Being one of the only two seniors on the team, it wasn’t an easy choice.
“My mom told me I had a week to decide what I was going to do,” Windjue said. “On my way to the pool my mind kept going back and forth between if I was going to swim or not. When I got to the pool I told the coach I was 85 percent sure I wasn’t going to swim. She told me to think about it for two more days and then to call her with my final decision.”
When it came time to make the final decision it was clear she wouldn’t be swimming.
“I just wasn’t passionate about it anymore,” Windjue said. “I really just wanted to focus on dual credit stuff and college.”
She wants to attend NDSU next fall for nursing on an academic scholarship.
With swimming practices starting right after school and going until 6 p.m., it didn’t leave much free time. When she had a meet, she could be up until 2 a.m. doing homework at times and still be expected to be up the next morning for school.
“It’s a big commitment,” head coach Marsha Dahl says. “They have to find a balance and for some kids it proves to be too much.”
Dahl understands that the older the girls get the harder classes they’ll take and the harder it is to stay in such a committed sport.
Along with senior Mercedes Galt, who also decided not to swim this year, the team has been left without any seniors, forcing the juniors to step up and take leadership. The team has been rotating captains between the 11 juniors.
“It is hard not having ‘seniority’ but it’s going OK,” said junior Marisol Rios. “The younger girls listen pretty well and the drama has been less than in past years.”
So far this season the team has taken second at their two invites, both times falling to North.
“Putting kids that are hurt in an event just to fill it, it will affect your lineup,” Dahl says.
The team is not yet at full strength, but Dahl said they soon will be and that they are still one of the top teams in the state. The team will compete at state Nov. 9 and 10 at the Bismarck Aquatic Center.
Both Galt and Windjue don’t think their decision not to swim this fall was a big surprise to anyone. They both had been hinting at it and neither has been involved in swimming club the past few years.
“I think when Mercedes decided not to swim it made the choice easier for Krista,” Dahl said. “She would’ve been the lone senior, which is a hard thing to do.”
Galt even told people she was going to play a different sport this fall. She had tried cross country, but that ended with a hip injury early in the season.
“I just wanted to enjoy my senior year,” Galt said. “I didn’t want to do something I didn’t enjoy.”