Future is bright for Brenna Ross
DANVILLE — Brenna Ross has yet to tap into her potential in the pool.
That’s a scary thought, as the Danville sophomore was the lone local girl swimmer to stand on the podium at the Class 2A swim meet.
After capturing the District 4 title in the 50 free (24.64 seconds), Ross trimmed some of that time off to take fifth at the state meet (24.45 seconds).
For her efforts, Ross has been named the Press Enterprise girls swimming MVP.
It wasn’t easy to get to this point either. After battling shoulder pain, Ross took the downtime the pandemic provided by mulling over if she was serious about swimming. She came to the conclusion that she was, and is thankful that her shoulder had time to heal.
“The cancellation was a huge motivation for me, and for me to come back this year was really huge,” Ross said. “I think over the break, I had a lot of time to see how serious I took swimming.”
Ross qualified for the state meet as a freshman, but never had the chance to see where she matched up with others in the state. After getting that chance this year, she is excited to see what she can do with her last two high school seasons.
“I’m going to focus on my times and start talking to college coaches [next year],” Ross said. “I want to try my best and attempt to try some new events. I really want to swim in them all, but I’m definitely a sprinter.”
Danville coach Danielle Sticklin was excited to see the shoulder not bother Ross, allowing her to enjoy the swim season a lot more than she did as a freshman.
“I think she had a lot more fun this season because she was around her teammates more,” Sticklin said. “Last year, she had to take a lot of breaks while training, and it frustrated her because she wanted to train, but her body wouldn’t let her.
“... I’ve coached her for a while and she’s just such a competitor. But she always rises to the occasion at the big meets and even exceeded what I expected.”
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