Saint Andrews School swimmer wants to repeat as state champion

Shayna Fetes, left, of Saint Andrews School talks with coach Sid Cassidy during practice. Fetes said she is hoping to repeat as state champion in swimming this year. (Gary Curreri/Correspondent)

Gary CurreriSpecial correspondent

Saint Andrews School senior Shayna Fetes has made the most out of her high school swimming career. She was the lone girl in Palm Beach County to win a state title last year and is a two-time Academic All-American. Even so, she wants more.

Fetes, 17, a team captain for the Scots, captured the state championship in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:02.40) which was Automatic All-American time. She also won county, district and regional titles and broke the 29-year-old school record in the event. Fetes was also sixth at state in 200-IM (2:04.04), which was an All-American Consideration time.

“It’s been a lot of fun,” said Fetes, who recently committed to swim at Auburn Universitywhere she said she wants to study Special Education. “I came in as a freshman from Carmel, Indiana to one of the top high school programs in the nation. It was a big adjustment, first of all, swimming outside and another was swimming in the fall. In Indiana, we swam states in February. Also, staring at the sun and swimming in the rain. I was like, ‘what is this? I am used to swimming indoors my entire life.’”

Fetes finished sixth in the state in the 100-yard breaststroke again and fourth in her sophomore year. She called it a “flat” season because her time was the same as her freshman year.

“I really regrouped and broke down everything I did,” she said. “I fixed what I could and going on to the blocks at state I knew everything was muscle memory.”

Saint Andrews assistant coach Quinn Cassidy, a former state champion in the breaststroke, worked with Fetes on some technical issues with her stroke and helped her improve in her junior year.

“Winning, and not only winning by so much but knowing that I did everything I could was the best feeling in the world,” Fetes said. “On top of that, I broke the school record and that was really exciting. It opened up a lot of doors for colleges as well and that was something I wasn’t expecting because, until that point, I wanted to go D-3 (Division 3), not D-1 (Division 1) and things went into play.

“I went to Auburn in May and that was kind of the end of the story,” she said. “I fell in love with the coaches and the program and the idea that academics are more important than athletics. You still need to have that desire to win, and that is something I learned here and I am so happy to be carrying that on next fall.”

Her goal this year is to defend her state title in the 100-yard breaststroke and get a top-3 finish in the individual medley event. She is also hopeful of a state championship or runner-up finish for the girls' team.

She said she is grateful to be in the water.

“I just learn that every day for me is a blessing,” Fetes said. “There were points where I didn’t want to swim, but the reality is I love it. I love when we are grinding 10,000 yards and it is just straight bottom. It is something that is just so relaxing. You are in your own world. You are racing these people, but really it is just you.

“It is such an independent thing so I learned that when I don’t go the best time it is more me than my team,” Fetes said. “Especially with a facility like this, I don’t think I would have been happier anywhere else.”

Saint Andrews head swim coach Sid Cassidy, who is also Quinn’s father, said Fetes is a true leader both on and off the pool deck.

“Shayna is a real leader,” he said. “She is in her fourth year with us. What she did last year with us as a junior was pretty impressive. She came in and felt she had some pretty specific goals and one was to become a state champion. She followed through and worked very well with coach Quinn. With coach Quinn being a former breaststroke state champion, really seemed to speak her language when it came to the techniques of the stroke and she responded very well to him being a full-time coach.

“It wasn’t that she wasn’t successful her freshman and sophomore years,” Sid Cassidy said. “She had a good drop in her freshman year and sophomore year she didn’t feel it went as well as she wanted. She changed some habits and became a true leader by example. This year as a captain, she is not only leading by example, you can sense that her leadership goes far beyond what she does in the pool.”