As a freshman, star swimmer Verity Abel ’14 achieved what most student athletes spend their entire high schools careers striving for – a state record.  The milestone moment took place at the 2010 Class LL Championship Meet atWesleyanUniversity, where Abel took first place in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 57.61 seconds.

While ninth grade seems early for such a huge accomplishment, the record was actually 10 years in the making. Abel began racing at the age of five with the Westport Water Rats, primarily because both of her older brothers, Larry Abel ’10 and Joss Abel ’12, were competitive swimmers, and has been training hard ever since.

When she was 12, Abel moved to the Wilton YMCA Wahoos. “They’re a much bigger program, and they really have some amazing swimmers, so when I joined the team, I started to take swimming a lot more seriously,” she said.

Most of Abel’s free time is spent at swim practices. Since moving up to the National Team, the highest training group on the Wahoos, she spends around 20 hours each week in the pool, plus an hour of dry land training or weight lifting every day.

At each practice, which can be up to 2.5 hours long, Abel typically swims around 8,000 yards, or the length of the pool 320 times, in a combination of long distance and sprint exercises.

The rest of Abel’s life is scheduled around her intensive training. “Swimming consumes most of my time,” she said. The rest is spent doing homework late at night or hanging out with her friends on the weekends when she doesn’t have a meet.

Her commitment has not gone unnoticed by her coaches, Coach Mike Laux from Staples and Coach Randy Erlenbach of the Wahoos. They both described Abel as determined, hardworking, and motivated, and said that these traits have helped her succeed thus far and will continue to serve her well in the future.

“She can be very good, depending on her motivation and goals,” said Laux. Luckily, Abel has made it clear that neither of those is in short supply.

“I look forward and remind myself of the time and effort I put into the sport, which drives me to persevere through all the exhausting practices and meets,” she said. “You have to stop and think for a second, and imagine if you quit right now then how much you would be giving up.”

She is also a strong believer in setting goals to maintain motivation.

“At some point in my high school swimming career, I would love to win Opens,” said Abel, who placed second last year. But that’s not even her loftiest goal: “Beyond high school, my goal is to make Olympic Trials.”

No matter what she achieves personally in the future, there is no doubt she will be an asset to any team she swims for. To Laux, her versatility is her greatest contribution; to Erlenbach, it is the way she interacts with her teammates every day at practice.

“She is a sincere person, so when she speaks, others listen. At practices, she speaks in a positive way which really encourages her teammates,” he said.

This makes sense, since Abel’s favorite part about swimming is training with her team. “You make so many amazing friends when you’re on a team and it’s nice to have the feeling that you are all in it together,” she said.

Outside of her teammates, Abel’s support system also includes her family. Her brothers continue to play a big role in her swimming career. “My brothers and I joke around with our swimming, but we all support each other as a family,” she said.

According to Abel’s older brother Joss, most of the sibling rivalry is avoided because they swim different events. “Sometimes I will check up on her to make sure she isn’t getting too close to me,” he admitted, but also said that his sister is a better swimmer because her state ranking amongst girls is higher than his amongst boys.

The support of Abel’s parents has also been crucial to Abel’s success.  “My parents always make sure they come to my meets and help me be as prepared as possible for every swim,” she said.

They are “kind of unsung heroes,” said Joss, “always there to take her to the5:15 a.m.practices during the school week.”

While Staples eagerly waits to see what comes next from the sophomore standout, Abel has adopted a simple and focused mindset to guide her upcoming seasons.

“My coaches always tell me to just try my best because if I don’t do well, it’s not the end of the world. That sounds very cliché but it couldn’t be truer.”