Photos courtesy of Sarah Daly
Recent Rockbridge Academy graduate Sarah Daly’s senior year was like no other. Daly joined a new swim club, the Monococy Aquatics Club at Hood College in Frederick, because she wanted a higher level of training.
With her new club, came new challenges. She had to get up at 3:45 a.m. twice a week for the start of 5 a.m. practices and commuted every day from school in Crownsville to Frederick each afternoon for more in-the-pool practices and some workouts at a local gym. In addition to all the driving, she took a heavy course load (managing a 4.0 grade-point average) and swam for her Rockbridge Academy team.
“It’s hard to do that much driving, but I absolutely love my (Monococy) team,” she says. “The girls work super hard and they encourage me to work harder. My dad used to drive me to practice and I did my homework in the car. This year, when I started driving to practices, I had to cram in my homework whenever. I would have to spend all weekends doing it and during my breaks at school.”
Daly’s work ethic and dedication caught the attention of Emory University Women’s Swimming and Diving Coach Jon Howell. He believes she’s the perfect fit for the Eagles, who have won a string of Division III national championships.
The 5-foot-5 Daly chose Emory over the opportunity to swim at two Division I schools: William & Mary and Davidson. She plans to major in math at Emory.
“She checks all the boxes for us,” Howell says. “She’s a motivated swimmer who is an achiever. We have a whole team of those. I think she will fit in real well. She really wants to get better, and is excited about Emory academically. She is also drawn to the team environment. She wants to be part of something big.”
Daly loves Emory’s winning tradition. And that’s one of the reasons she’s going there. “I chose Emory over the other big schools because Emory has won national championships for the past 10 years,” she explains. “I would like to make it 14.”
Daly’s list of past accomplishments in club and high school swimming jumps out. An all-expense paid trip to the Colorado Springs Olympic Training Center ranks as her biggest achievement. She was one of 24 Maryland swimmers to get invited on the coveted excursion.
“It was really cool because I went with swimmers I see and race all the time,” Daly says. “We did training in the pool, and different mental training. I was able to see how much focus and perseverance you need to achieve at a high level. It inspired me to keep going at it.”
Daly specializes in the 200-yard butterfly and 200 freestyle. She’s experienced plenty of success swimming for Monocracy, the Columbia Aquatics Association, and Retriever Aquatics Club at UMBC. Her swimming highlights outside of school included winning the 100 free and 100 individual medley Central Maryland Swim League Championships.
Daly gained a lot of respect from her 10 years of club swimming with her team-first attitude. “I think the awards that have meant the most to me have been the relay teams that have won medals at sectionals or a state meet,” Daly says. “Some call swimming an individual sport, but you spend so much time together training with teammates. When we do a relay, it’s a special memory.”
Daly dominated during her four years at Rockbridge. The school had an independent schedule and competed against the likes of Key School, Palotti, and DeMatha. “She won every high school event she ever swam in, but she was very humble about it,” Rockbridge Swim Coach Ann Soltis says.
Daly also set school records in the 100 fly, 200 free, and 500 free. Soltis is just as impressed with Daly’s involvement in extracurricular activities as her athletic accomplishments. She won first place in three events at the Maryland Science Olympiad in 2018, took home medals on a national Latin exam in 2019, was her schools top scorer in the American Mathematics Competition the same year, and served as both the vice president and president of the Rockbridge Service Club.
“She balances it all with such poise and grace,” the coach says. “You don’t see a lot of stress coming from her. She has a level-headed attitude.”
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