A Colonial Forge Student Media Publication

Colonial Forge High School - 550 Courthouse Road, Stafford, VA

Colonial Forge High School - 550 Courthouse Road, Stafford, VA

A Colonial Forge Student Media Publication

Colonial Forge High School - 550 Courthouse Road, Stafford, VA

A Colonial Forge Student Media Publication

Colonial Forge High School - 550 Courthouse Road, Stafford, VA

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Athlete Spotlight: Zoe Woodman (’16)

Zoe Woodaman is one of the newest members of Colonial Forge’s swim team but is not an amateur when it comes to the sport. She’s been swimming for nine years and has been a part of a very competitive swim team for five years. Zoe is one of Forge’s strongest freshman swimmers and she’s just getting started.

    Zoe got her start in swimming with lessons when she was six and eventually she joined a swim team called Sharks. Zoe may be a strong swimmer now, but it wasn’t always that way.

    “I almost quit when I was on Sharks because I wasn’t good,” she said. “My mom encouraged me to try a different team so I joined STAT and I’ve been swimming with them ever since.”

    She’s been swimming with STAT (Stafford Aquatic Team), which is a competitive, year-round swim team, for five years and decided to try out for Forge’s swim team along with some of her friends.

    “My teammates are all pretty funny and we’re all really supportive of each other.” She said.

    Zoe’s favorite parts about being on the team are the infamous pasta parties and the practices. “Sometimes practice can be pretty back and forth, just swimming the length of the pool, but sometimes they can be pretty fun when we’re all acting like idiots.” She said.

    She’s a sprinter which means that her races are a shorter distance than a long distance swimmer but her races are extremely fast and very intense.

“When you’re a sprinter you have to get hyped up and if you hype yourself up enough you get the adrenaline rush and do really well,” she said. “It’s just really fast and I enjoy it even though I’m in pain when it’s over.”

    Zoe has gotten her All American swimming times and broke 30 seconds in a long course race which she describes as her biggest accomplishments in swim.

    “I think I’m in a good place [on the team]” she said. “I have a few things that I’ve been working on like my flip turns. Once I get those I think there will be a huge difference in my times.”

    Zoe competed in the States competition for Forge and is now focused on hopefully making it to senior champs. Senior champs is a swim competition in which only people with qualifying times can compete.

    “They’ve upped the times for senior champs so I just have to work to meet those times.” She said. Since the olympics this past summer, the times for senior champs have been raised. Zoe has also entered a new age group which means her qualifying times for senior champs are harder than they have been in the past.

    Zoe’s life would very different if she hadn’t stayed with swimming. She jokes that if she wasn’t a swimmer she would actually have a social life.

    “Swim takes up most of my time,” she said.

    Though Zoe was close to quitting swim completely, she kept with it and it has become a major part of her life.

    “Swim has made me more disciplined,” she said. “The biggest thing it’s taught me is to be disciplined.”

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Katie Bashista, Editor in Chief

I’m Katie and I’m Editor in Chief for the Talon. I shop too much and spend the majority of my time at concerts. I’m also obsessed with my dogs. The stories I write about other people are a lot more interesting than I am so check them out. My Email is [email protected]

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Athlete Spotlight: Zoe Woodman (’16)