Senior Andrew Liang, one of the top swimmers for the 2014 recruitments, has been swimming for a mere seven years.
He started competitively swimming when he was 10-years old with the swim club Palo Alto Stanford Aquatics (PASA). But now he is already looking to college to continue his sport. Liang recently committed to the Stanford University swimming class of 2018 next spring.
“Stanford was the best combination of academics and athletics,” Liang said. “I also looked at Harvard and Princeton.”
Liang clearly earned the ability to choose from these top schools when beat the Olympic gold medalist Mark Spitz’s 1967 in the 100-yard butterfly competition time by 1.22 seconds at the De Anza Division Championship last season hosted at Paly.
“My best stroke is butterfly,” Liang said. “I went to the Olympic trials in 2012 and the World Championship trials this past summer. And I won CCS in two events last year”
Liang only has one season left at Paly, but he’s proud of the legacy has left.
“It’s something I’m proud and honored of, but records are meant to be broken,” Liang said. “Hopefully [my records] will just motivate someone else in the future.”
Liang doesn’t only help by putting points on the board for Paly, but he is also a leader for the swim team. His teammates acknowledge his role as a strong presence on the team.
“He’s a very dedicated athlete,” Liang’s teammate Omri Newman said. “[He] acts as a role model for others and leads by example.”
Although Liang is excited to be moving across the street next year, it is bittersweet, as there are parts of swimming at Paly he will miss.
“I think I’ll miss the high school dual meets and just the team in general,” Liang said. “[But] I’ll still be in town, so I don’t think I’ll be that sad.”
However, the benefit of growing up in Palo Alto is that he has been practicing with the Stanford swim team for much of his life.
“I know pretty much the whole team since I live so close, I’ve already hung out with them a couple of times and I love them,” Liang said. “I also just met most of the guys coming next year also and they’re awesome too.”
Liang is confident in his decision to swim at Stanford, however he is unsure about how long he wants to pursue swimming beyond college.
“I’m not sure if I will swim professionally,” Liang said. “I’ll have to see how I do in college.”
