Roberson senior Mary-O Soule
ASHEVILLE – Mary-O Soule’s summer swim tour has included college visits and successful meets.
Last week she competed in the Speedo Junior National Long Course Championships in Minneapolis, Minn.
Soule, a senior at Roberson who swims for the Asheville Swim Club, finished ninth in her two best events — the 200-meter butterfly and 400-meter individual medley.
“It went pretty well,” said Soule this past week as she traveled to another campus visit.
“It’s a very competitive level, so I was just happy to be able to compete and hang with all of the girls there.”
She made an Olympic qualifying time in the 400-meter individual medley with a time of 4:53.54. Soule traveled to Minneapolis with Asheville Swim Club teammate Abby Kriegler, who competed in the 800-meter and 1,500-meter freestyle.
Earlier in the year Soule, who won the NCHSAA 4-A champion in the 100-yard butterfly with an All-American consideration time of 55.73 seconds as a sophomore, stopped swimming for her prep team to focus on work with her club team.
“I definitely loved all of the time I spent on high school swimming but, at the end of the day, there wasn’t enough time for both,” she said. “It was difficult to manage school and a lot of swimming.”
When she stopped swimming for the Rams, Soule had the area’s fastest times in four individual events — the 100-yard butterfly (58.03), 200-yard freestyle (1:55.00), 200-yard individual medley (2:10.76) and 500-yard freestyle (5:13.71).
Over the summer there have been days when practices have run close to five hours. Soule admits that won’t happen during the school year but she’ll still practice for two-and-a-half hours a day.
“I’m challenged at my club level,” she said. “It’s not like college, because college will be harder, but it does prepare you for college.”
All of this practice, along with her immense talent, has helped her become a top recruit.
Her hope is that in the next two months she’ll make up her mind on her college choice.
“It has been (a little nerve-racking) but I have been really excited about it and I’ve kept everything open. I couldn’t name one place I want to go to. I have a hard time narrowing it down, that’s my problem,” she said.
The big national meets, like the one Soule competed in last week is where college coaches look at prospects.
“I’m looking at schools in the ACC, SEC, Big 10 and Pac 12; kind of all over,” Soule said. “I definitely want the big university that has big-time sports, but I also want a prestigious academic school. Swimming at a big school has always been a dream for me. I always wanted to swim in college and to make it happen has been a dream come true.”
Soule enjoyed being at a big meet at the same time the Olympics were happening in Rio. She was able to catch plenty of the swims where Americans captured gold medals.
“Every night we got to watch the Olympics and that was encouraging,” she said. “There’s so much excitement about swimming right now so that has helped.”
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