by Michael Sadowski
Pocono Record Writer

At age 5, Christine Swiker already was playing sports just like her two older brothers.

She had been in a T-ball league, basketball and cheerleading. But it wasn't until she got her first taste of the pool that she knew exactly what she loved most.

"We were at the shore and at a hotel, and I just jumped in and started swimming around," she said of her first swimming experience while her family was at the Jersey shore for one of her brother's soccer tournaments. "I had the basics of swimming, and there were people around. But yeah, I just jumped right in."

She's dabbled in other sports since then, but she's stuck with the pool. It's gone so well that Swiker, 21, has forged a collegiate career out of it at East Stroudsburg University.

The Philadelphia native and Archbishop Ryan graduate is the school's record holder in the 200 and 400 individual medley races and her times this year already have qualified her to swim at the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Championships in February.

She's qualified in the 200 and 400 IM races, the 200 butterfly and the 200 freestyle. She's only allowed to race three different events at the championships, from Feb. 18 to 21. The IM races are a lock, she's still deciding between the butterfly and freestyle events.

It all started with a decision to give up dueling winter sport basketball before high school with a simple explanation.

"I don't like to sweat," she said. "And I'm big on competition, and I like that aspect of swimming, that it's just you against the clock and the other swimmers."

Swiker had qualified for the conference championships previously, but last year was the first year she said she had a good mindset. It paid off with her setting those school records at the conference championships in 2009 — twice.

"Before when I went, I was too worried about what was going on around me," she said. "The other lanes, the other swimmers. Last year was the first time I really focused on my lane and what I was doing. That's how I'm going to go into it this year."

If she can make it there.

Swiker said swimming is taking a toll on her body and she's developed shoulder and knee issues.

Nothing overly serious, just enough to annoy someone who trains for hours a day and whose specialty — the individual medley, a combination of all four major swim strokes — requires you to use just about every muscle and bone in your body.

"I tell people I'm a 21-year-old with the body of a 90-year-old," she joked. "It's not that bad. But swimming really puts your body through a lot."

So it's common to see her in the training room getting iced down after a hard workout — even if it doesn't seem common to see a swimmer in that training room.

Swimming isn't a contact sport, but swimmers, she said, need just as much attention as any other athlete — even the ones who make fun of swimmers for being in the training room.

"I just ignore them," she said of the playful jibes she's heard about a swimmer getting treatment. "I mean, I know I'm in pain."

She'll have time to work out any physical issues before the conference races with three more meets before PSAC Championships, including the ESU Invitational on Feb. 6.

Her recent practices, she said, make her optimistic about how that conference meet may go.

"My times have been good, I'm practicing well, I've been doing some of my best training," she said. "I'm feeling good about racing right now."


ABOUT CHRISTINE

Name: Christine Swiker
Age: 21
Class: Senior at East Stroudsburg University
Hometown: Philadelphia
Major: Athletic training and recreation services
Minor: Psychology
GPA: 3.37 in the fall 2009 semester

Record holder: She has the ESU record for the 200 individual medley (2:11.54) and the 400 IM (4:39.19), set at last year's Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Championships.

Future plans: Graduate school. She's applied to five schools for occupational therapy and so far has been accepted from the only school she's heard from, Gannon University in Erie. That's a long way from Philly. "I'm kind of a home-body, so going six hours away, I'm not so sure about that yet, but I love the school," she said.