The All-Met Swimmer of the Year nearly quit the sport. Now shes committed to Notre Dame and eyein
Sinead Eksteen approached her parents before her sophomore year at McLean High, exhausted and frustrated. She had been going through the same routine as a year-round swimmer since age 6 and was ready for a change. Eksteen wanted them to know she didn’t want to swim anymore.
Her parents supported her decision, but encouraged Eksteen to find another sport if she really wanted to quit swimming. An avid runner, Eksteen decided to join the school’s cross-country team that fall.
“That was a low point for me in [swimming],” Eksteen said. “I was training really hard, but wasn’t mentally focused at meets and the workouts weren’t paying off. I was pretty close to giving up.”
She ended up coming back to the sport, but the brief break allowed her to recharge and realize what she enjoyed about swimming. Eksteen returned to the pool after the cross-country season with a renewed dedication and this past winter she picked up two Virginia 6A state titles — in the 100 and 200-yard freestyle — and was named the All-Met Swimmer of the Year as a junior.
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Earlier this month, the 16-year-old took another step in her nascent career by committing to swim for Notre Dame, a top 25 women’s swimming and diving program. As a South Africa native, Eksteen is also eyeing the possibility of swimming at the 2020 Olympics for her birth country, charging forward on a path that nearly ended before her arrival as one of the nation’s top high school swimmers.
“I’ve met so many great people through the sport,” Eksteen said. “It helps me balance everything else in my life. It motivates me to do better in school, work hard in everything else I do. I wouldn’t be able to quit because I’d lose all those things.”
Depending on whom you ask, Eksteen’s introduction to the sport began with either a bribe or a clever form of motivation.
She started swimming at her local community pool, Shouse Village in Vienna, when she was 5, and with her parents’ encouragement, she joined the Nation’s Capital Swim Club (NCAP) a year later.
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It was around this time coaches noticed how quickly Eksteen picked up each stroke and when her father, Tertius, realized that his oldest daughter had a natural talent for the sport. Eksteen broke multiple Northern Virginia Swimming League records in the eight-and-under division.
“She has terrific aerobic capacity and stroke mechanics,” NCAP Coach John Flanagan said. “That’s inherent.”
But early on in her career, Eksteen would sometimes refuse to go to 4 a.m. swim practices, so her parents brainstormed ways to get her to wake up, occasionally promising the young girl that they’d buy her chicken nuggets if she went, a deal that seemed to work.
“She called it bribery,” Tertius said with a laugh. “We called it motivation.”
Nowadays, Eksteen has perfect attendance at practices and her desire to swim is self-driven. Flanagan has coached Eksteen since she joined his group at age 13, and credits her work ethic for her success.
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“She’s one of the best trainers I’ve ever had,” Flanagan said. “I’ve seen some amazing kids, and she basically has world-class drive.”
An athletic child growing up, Eksteen also played travel soccer until sixth grade, when it became difficult to juggle both sports. For reasons Eksteen says she can’t remember, she decided to stick with swimming.
When she joined McLean, she was an immediate impact swimmer, Highlanders Coach Kyle Drake said. Eksteen entered high school with a mix of talent, physical stature — she stands at 5-feet-10 — and drive that is rare in a freshman. She was named a second-team All-Met after her sophomore season.
Throughout the years, Drake has watched Eksteen mature from a quiet girl with talent to a confident team leader. In Drake’s view, Eksteen was far more patient and relaxed about her times this past winter after coming back from her hiatus from swimming — a period of several months in which she also dabbled in triathlons.
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“She knows she’s a good swimmer, but I think she didn’t feel the pressure to exceed her expectations for herself,” he said. “It was, ‘I’m going to swim my fastest, but if today is not my day, it’s not the end of the season.’”
Easygoing and unassuming outside of the pool, it wasn’t until colleges began recruiting her that Eksteen said she realized she was a talented swimmer. This past year she researched about six schools before narrowing it down to two.
Eksteen visited Tennessee, Texas and North Carolina State in the fall and met the Notre Dame team over spring break this year. She immediately fell for the Fighting Irish.
“There’s a community feel for the school. The team just felt like a huge sense of family,” Eksteen said. “I felt welcomed.”
She plans to take an official visit to Notre Dame in September after competing in a few meets during the summer, including the junior nationals in August. She will also be one of the assistant coaches for the Shouse Village swim team. Eksteen’s schedule, by choice, is now dominated by the sport she almost quit several times.
“I’m definitely enjoying it,” Eksteen said. “After the break I took in sophomore year, I got over that mental block that I have. When I compete, I think of it as an exciting experience instead dreading it. Having that mental attitude helps you enjoy what you’re doing.”
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