She started to shake, frozen with nothing to say. Nerves filled the body of junior breaststroker Emma Reaney even as she tried not to psych herself out. Reaney stretched each leg on the block, put her goggles on when the swimmer before her had 50 yards to go and then hit the block like a drum roll.

Reaney started swimming at the age of seven, after she had tried almost every sport there was for her to try.

“I got bored really fast,” Reaney said. “My mom knew I needed to do something with all my pent up energy, so we heard about the Aquahawks from a friend and decided to give it a shot.”

Little did she know how far swimming would take her, and how she would fall in love with the sport. Her first day of swim practice really characterizes Reaney as a swimmer.

“It actually came pretty naturally,” Reaney said. “My coach asked me to try breaststroke kick on the first day, and I tried it once and was off.”

Off to many hours of practice, meets, and even the 2008 Olympic Trials.

Despite the hard times that come with success, she has never given up on the sport.

“I was in love with the water and couldn’t get enough of the competition and friends,” Reaney said. “Now that I’m older and realize that I stare at a black line for two hours, six days a week, there are times when it can be tough to stay with it. I learned that you have to get through those bad times to get to the good ones.”

Success is something Reaney is accustomed to, having even qualified for the 2008 Olympic Trials.

With great accomplishments come great experiences and memories. Reaney has many memories that she will always cherish.

“The most special moment I’ve ever experienced was when I anchored for our 800 meter freestyle relay at sectionals two or three summers ago,” Reaney said. “I out touched the team next to us by a couple one-hundredths of a second. The whole team rallied behind us and lost their voices, they were cheering so hard.”

Reaney has not decided if she wants to pursue swimming in college or not, but the options are there.

“College recruiting for swimmers doesn’t start until July 1 before your senior year,” Reaney said. “So all the coaches can do right now is send me letters and e-mails, so no scholarships yet. I have absolutely no idea what I want to do with my life.”

Around 30 colleges have given her letters, trying to interest her in their team.

“I was really excited about Texas, Florida, USC, Indiana, Princeton, Columbia, Harvard and Notre Dame,” Reaney said.

All of her hard work, dedication, motivation and natural talent have brought her to this point, Reaney is the sixteenth-rated girls swimmer in the recruit for the class of 2011, according to collegeswimming.com and the fourteenth-rated from the U.S.

“I think swimming has taught me more than I realize,” Reaney said. “It taught me how to better myself in areas like friendship, dedication, commitment, perseverance, mental and physical toughness, time management and even math. Adding up times and staying on intervals is way harder than it seems.”