Fortin breaks records

Shelby Fortin broke manyFortin ForFortin was virtually a shoe in in dual meets and dominated SWCs and Class S all four years.

"I'm just a competitive person in general and I don't like to lose," Fortin said. "When I'm swimming, I push myself to do better."

Weston had winning records all four years, won Class S her freshman year, took second in S this year and was in the top four during her other two years. Her "refuse to lose" mentality propelled the Lady Trojans and served as a sparkplug for her teammates.

"Shelby works hard," Weston Coach Tom Grace said. "She knows what she needs to do to be a fast swimmer and puts the work into it. She has meant a lot to the program, not just with her fast times but is a girl everyone looks up to and aspires to be as a swimmer."

What makes her accomplishments stick out is that she's formidable in sprinting and distance freestyle events, which differ from each other in many ways. Her ability to transition well from sprinting to distance events contributes to her success and allows her to diversify herself as a swimmer.

"It's all about the training," Fortin said. "Sometimes I train with sprinters and other times I train with distance swimmers and they push me."

When the high school season ends, Fortin still remains in the pool. She swims for the Wilton Wahoos under Coach Randy Erlenbach and credits him for her success because he pushes her to excel and try new events. Under Erlenbach, she made the cuts in distance events for the national championships, which furthered her interest level in these events.

She doesn't have a specific strategy in swimming the 50-free and 100-free, other then to go as fast as she could.

"I like to think it's about pure luck," Fortin said. "I take one breath, close my eyes when I go in and I swim as fast as I can."

Swimming the 200-free requires more strategy from her because the race is not an all-out sprint.

"The third 50 [the event is divided into four 50s] is the most important to me because that's when I tend to die off," Fortin said. "I just work on it in practice a lot. I try to mimic the race to see if I can hold my pace. Each time I go into the race, my coach says to work on my next 50 and I'm able to handle it better and I have enough energy if I work on it in practice."

Training for the 500-free could be arduous because she swims long distances to prepare for it. Once she's in the race, she doesn't have a problem with it.

"After doing such distances in practice, the 500 doesn't seem to be as long," Fortin said.

She finds the backstroke to be similar to the freestyle and excels there as well. Focusing her training solely on those events enables her to become the strong performer she is.

In relays, she anchors both the 200-free and 400-free teams and her ability to handle the pressure enables her to thrive in this position.

"I love anchoring," Fortin said. "It gets you pumped up and I love beating my opponent in the end. It's my competitive nature and I don't like to lose, especially when I have three other people relying on me."

Life in the pool began for her in first grade. She did other sports as well but once she realized swimming was her best sport, she dropped basketball, ballet, soccer and lacrosse.

"My mom wanted me to learn how to swim and I got better and dropped the other sports," Fortin recalled.

Leadership is a strength as she served as captain, a role in which she led by example through her work ethic.

"I had a lot of fun with the girls and it was a great team," Fortin said. "All the girls looked up to me and I wanted to help them with their stroke."

Academically, she takes AP courses. Science is her favorite subject and she wants to study medicine.

"Swimming is time-consuming and keeps me on track to get things done," Fortin said. "I get up early to go to practice and I get home late from practice. I have to do my work right away."

Next year, she'll swim for the University of Pennsylvania and major in medicine. She also hopes to make Olympic trials.

"Swimming for Weston and the Wahoos has set me up well for what I'll do at Penn," Fortin said. "I did a lot of big meets for the Wahoos and I'll see that at Penn."

Grace is confident Fortin will do well for the Lady Quakers.

"Shelby will do a great job at Penn and be one of their top swimmers," Grace said. "She'll grow as a swimmer. I'll miss her a lot. She has a great personality and I enjoyed working with her. Weston won't see a kid like her for quite awhile. She's a phenomenon and the real deal."