Three YCHS swimmers sign with colleges

York Comprehensive High School swimmers Anna Littlejohn, Ariel Prescott and Jessica Myers have signed to compete at college.

Littlejohn and Prescott will both swim at Columbia College next fall, while Myers plans to swim at Lenoir-Rhyne University in Hickory, N.C.

Littlejohn, the daughter of Steve and Tabitha Littlejohn, has been swimming at the competitive level since seventh grade.

“I actually started swimming for my dad,” said Littlejohn. “Having him for a coach really touched my heart. He really cared about me and wanted me to excel.”

Littlejohn, who has been involved in offseason training and technique training, recognizes what it takes to be successful. “You have to push yourself,” she noted. “There’s nobody pushing you. It’s just you and the water. It’s all about self-discipline.”

Asked if there’s a reason to set the pace, Littlejohn said it depends on the event. “The 500 and 200 is a pace within itself,” she said. “I compete in several events but my main competitions are the 100 and 50 free.”

Prescott, the daughter of Dave and Ana Prescott, just completed her sixth year of competing at the high school level.

“I tried different sports when I was younger,” she said, “soccer, basketball and other stuff before settling into the sport I love.

“My dad had s huge influence on my swimming career. He and my grandfather both encouraged me to keep on going and pursue whatever I wanted to do in life. It means a lot.”

Prescott said she competes in a little bit of everything, including the 100 backstroke and freestyle, the 200 medley relay and the 200 freestyle relay.

Myers, the daughter of Larry and Janette Myers, has been involved in competitive swimming for eight years. She began summer league competition before YCHS formed a swim team.

“It requires a lot of dedication and commitment,” she said. “We’ve improved a lot as a team over the years.”

Myers has relied on stamina and technique in building a successful career at YCHS. “It’s all important,” she said. “I practice a lot and know when to pace myself.”

Her advice to younger swimmers: “It’s a great experience, totally different than the other sports. You have to keep up in the classroom.”

YCHS head swim team coach Wayne Lowry praised the three college-bound swimmers for their contributions. “We’re real excited about the progress they made this year,” he said. “It speaks a lot to the direction this program is moving.”

Lowry is a firm believer in academics before athletics.

“There have been many practices where a swimmer had a big test the next day and couldn’t make it to practice,” he said. “We make arrangements during the year.”

Added Lowry: “The big thing I think everybody misses about high school swimming is that we might be a team but kind of mold that into a family. We look out for each other. We stick up for each other. We motivate each other, the older swimmers kind of bringing along the younger swimmers.”

Assistant coach Dave Prescott, a former resource officer at YCHS who now works at Nation Ford High School, has a long time association with the Cougar swimming program.

Prescott remembers when the coaches asked him to help out with dry lane training. He has become a rock steady contributor to the YCHS program.

“Having three kids to sign to compete at the college level is huge,” he said. “In the past, we had kids who were college-caliber swimmers, but swimming wasn’t a priority for them.”

Prescott cherishes the time he’s spent with his daughter, Ariel.

“We’ve been traveling to out-of-town meets since she was a seventh-grader,” he recalls. “We would leave at five o’clock or six o’clock in the morning to get to a swim meet.”

This story was originally published November 24, 2015 at 11:50 AM with the headline "Three YCHS swimmers sign with colleges."