Matthew Nolan '17 Recruiting Profile

My name is Matthew Nolan. My aim is to swim at the collegiate level and I am willing to do whatever it takes to achieve that goal. I believe my talent, competitiveness, commitment to hard work, dedication to succeed and leadership qualities will be a positive asset to any team. My excellent grades in high school, and my undertaking to continue them in college, are an added bonus. I am a leader and team player both inside and outside swimming. I am captain of both my summer swim team and my high school team and was elected junior class president this year.

When I get to college, I plan to major in political science and minor in either economics or history. Right now, in high school, I am on that track already. This year, I’m taking four AP courses, including US History and Human Geography. I have an internship with DC’s At-Large Councilmember David Grosso, which is giving me vital experience in the political process. At the end of my sophomore year my GPA was a 3.51; in junior year I have a 4.20 weighted GPA.

Swimming is my passion, and has been for a very long time. I began competitive swimming when I was 5 and have been competitively swimming year-round since I was 8. I also spend countless hours in and around the pool working as a lifeguard. Over time, my specialties have become the distance events: 500 free, 1650 free and the 400 IM. My times for those events have taken me to top-level meets where I have placed highly. My stand-out event is the 500 free, in which I go 5:05 and aim to improve that to 4:48 by the end of the 2017 season. I also intend to drop 13 seconds in the 400 IM and reach 4:21.

My main goal is to make the swim team at a competitive university. I know that this will be hard but I feel that I am good at a variety of events and will be an asset to any team. My strength at distance means I can fill some gaps, but I fully intend to improve my short- and middle-distance events so that I can fill those gaps as well. I’m not only looking to fill gaps, however. I would like to contend for the top spots as well. My talent, commitment to hard work, dedication to succeed and leadership qualities will definitely improve the right team.