Antol Takes Home Gamer of the Week Honors
Teays Physical Therapy Center, Inc. and The Putnam Herald are pleased to present this week’s Gamer of the Week to senior, Lexi Antol of the Hurricane High School Girls’ swim team.
Over the course of 4 years swimming for the Hurricane Redskins, senior, Lexi Antol has been the model of consistency. With 3 consecutive appearances in the state swim meet, Antol has her sights set on a 4th visit. To open her senior campaign, Antol has been the preeminent do-it-all swimmer. She has been used in a variety of different races and formats. Hurricane’s girls’ team has finished no worse than second place in any meet thus far this season and Antol herself has finished in the top 3 of every individual event. Lexi attributes her personal and team success this season to the coaches and her time swimming in the offseason. “Coach White came back to coach this year and that’s really helped us improve and get better as a group. I swim personally for the YMCA club team when I’m not with our school team, so that just allows me to get extra work in and improve with more repetition,” stated Antol.
Coach Kendra White noted that Lexi is an experienced swimmer that provides flexibility for her team, stating “Lexi has the pedigree (qualifying for states every year of high school) and family ties (older sisters who swam before her) that have led her to be an experienced, successful swimmer for us. She’s a utility swimmer. You can plug her in just about anywhere and expect something good to come from it. She has swum in over half of the events this year and has never finished lower than third, so that shows her versatility. That’s vital for our success.” Lexi also noted that their team is competitive with each other, and each girl pushes the others to be better. “We all want everyone else to succeed so it’s a good-natured competitiveness that our team has to keep everyone motivated and doing their best,” stated Antol.
Lexi started swimming at the age of 5 and has been hooked ever since. “My older sisters swam before me, I was always around it because of them and fell in love with it,” Lexi said. Her goals for this season are to medal at states as an individual (Top-6) and have the team improve on its 5th place finish at states last year. “We lost a few seniors from last year and we’ve been working hard to replace them in our relay squads, so that’s a work in progress that has been getting better with time.” Coach White stated, “Lexi is a true joy to coach and be around. She’s a lot of fun, very energetic, and care-free. She does take it seriously and works very hard, but she knows how to enjoy herself while doing it.”
Lexi carries a 4.2 cumulative GPA into her final semester of high school and committed to swim collegiately at Fairmont State. She is considering studying exercise science to become a Physical Therapist. Throughout high school, she has been a member of NHS and International Club.
Please look for other local high school athletes to be named in next week’s female Gamer of the Week Sponsored by Teays Physical Therapy Center, Inc. and The Putnam Herald.