Elite swimmer will compete collegiately this fall
Photograph courtesy Stern family
Key School senior Maebelle Stern is exceptionally focused and driven—especially when it comes to swimming. Stern wanted to develop into an elite competitor, so she outworked many swimmers in the sport to go far and accomplish her lofty goal. Stern will swim at Columbia University in Manhattan in the fall, where she plans to major in biology. She carries a 3.75 grade-point average.
Her achievements for the Annapolis Swim Club—where she has swum for 11 years—helped her get to Columbia, a Division I swimming program. Stern’s dedication and passion shows up constantly during practices and championship meets.
The 5-foot-7 Stern, an Annapolis resident, specializes in the freestyle (200, 500, club-record 4:58.35) and excels in grueling long distance events (800 free, 1,500 freestyle). Her list of accomplishments is a long one.
“Her determination and grit,” Annapolis Swim Club Coach Stephen Henderson says of what separates Stern from other swimmers. “She has the toughness of always competing in challenging events. She never misses a practice in all the years she’s been here.”
Stern considers placing second in the 200 and 500 free at the Maryland LSC Senior Swimming Championships, which features many future college swimmers, in February of last year at St. Mary’s College of Maryland, to be the highlights of her career.
In February, she shined again at states, placing second in the 1,000 free, setting a club-record 10:19.36.
“She started high school as an ordinary swimmer,” Henderson explains. “Last year, she was a silver medalist in the (Maryland LSC) Senior Swimming Championships in two events.”
Stern’s rigorous schedule is proof of her dedication. During the busiest part of the seasons in the winter, she swims more than 19 hours a week, including 6 a.m. practices, between her club and school teams. Stern practices six day a week for her swim club, counting time in the pool and dry land practice. You can call her a workhorse with the load of events she swims. Sometimes, it’s seven per meet.
“I’ve felt I’ve had to work really hard through the years,” Stern explains. “I had to be very mindful of how my training was, and how my lifestyle was. Making sure I was getting enough sleep and eating right. All those sorts of things.”
Stern hopes to finish her career with a flourish in a pair of national meets in Buffalo this spring and North Carolina in the summer.
“I felt I had to work really hard to qualify for the meet in North Carolina,” Stern says. “You had to make sacrifices. I had to be more mindful of my training and lifestyle.”
The 18-year-old Stern is eyeing a top finish in both meets in one of six or seven individual events, which she does consistently, including the 200, 400, 800, or 1,500 freestyles.
“I like swimming in a lot of events,” Stern says. “It gives you chances to do well and get the best times. Because I am a (long) distance swimmer, I don’t get easily fatigued at meets.”
Stern also enjoyed winning the 200 and 500 individual titles for Key four times each in the Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland (IAMM) championship meets.
Her coaches rave about Stern’s leadership skills, especially when it comes to working with her younger sister Adie, a 10th grader who also swims for the Key School varsity. Stern’s other sister, Stella, a fourth grader at Key, swims for Annapolis Swim Club.
Maebelle and Adie were part of a third-place 200 medley relay team in the IAAM championships.
“She is more focused than other swimmers,” Key Swimming Coach Karla McMahon says of Maebelle. “That’s her passion in life.”
“She is like a coach,” she adds. “She teaches swimming herself when she is not swimming.” Stern gets some swimming tips over the years from her mother Kirra Brandon, who swam at Harvard University.
“Two of my sisters swim for our club team,” Stern points out. “I think that was inspired by my mom. When I was young, I wanted to swim at an Ivy League school because I looked up to my mom so much.”
