Linton-Stockton junior Sage Hall is looking forward to starting her season this week. — linton-stockton high school junior sage hall is looking forward to getting her swim season started this week. (Submitted photo)

There are a lot of high school athletes who are dedicated and go the extra mile to improve at the sport they love.

But there aren’t many who have the drive and motivation to do what Sage Hall does four days a week.

Hall, a junior at Linton-Stockton High School, is a swimmer. She started when she was 9 years old with the local swim club, the Stingrays. The club is a summer team and uses the A.M. Risher Memorial Pool in Linton’s Humphreys Park.

She also spent time with a swim team in Vincennes.

But Hall wanted more. She wanted to swim for her high school, even though Linton doesn’t have a pool. That meant she had to get creative and find a way to make it work.

The Indiana High School Athletic Association allows athletes who want to play an individual sport, but their school doesn’t have a team, to practice with another school and compete as an individual for their home school.

That’s what Hall did as a freshman, when she traveled to Bloomington North High School to practice and swim. As a sophomore, she started out doing the same with Terre Haute North High School, but it didn’t work out and she didn’t compete.

This year, she’s practicing again with the Terre Haute North team.

Sage hall (swimming left) started swimming when she was 9 years old. (submitted photo)

Getting there for practices, Monday through Thursday, isn’t easy. She’s in the Twin Rivers program at White River Valley, and she gets out of school at 3 p.m. in Switz City and practice starts at 4:15 in Terre Haute.

Before she had her driver’s license as a freshman, one of her parents — Doug and Brook Hall — had to take her to Bloomington for practice.

“I don’t normally get home until 7 or 7:30 every night, and I don’t really get to hang out with my friends or family much (on practice days),” Hall said.

“And I don’t have a lot of home-cooked dinners every night (because of her schedule) and I also have homework so that’s a big thing. It’s definitely a sacrifice.”

Hall swims the 50 and 100-meter freestyle, the 50 and 100-meter backstroke, and the 100-meter individual medley. The 100 IM is 25 meters of each of the four swim strokes — backstroke, freestyle, butterfly, and breaststroke.

“The 100 IM is probably my favorite. I just like to be able to do all the strokes in one, and I think it gives me a lot more adrenaline because I don’t get to do two of the strokes all the time. So it’s really fun getting to do all of them,” Hall explained.

Hall’s best times:

• 50 freestyle, :28.93

• 100 freestyle, 1:03.40

• 50 backstroke, :34.12

• 100 backstroke, 1:20.51

• 100 IM, 1:19.83

sage hall says for her to lower her times she needs to work on her dives into the pool to start a race. (submitted photo)

Hall shared some don’t understand how hard swimming can be. And how much out-of-the-pool work is involved.

“I think some people think it’s really easy because you’re just swimming in the water. But I think once you do a practice, you realize how hard it is and how out of breath you get so quick,” Hall explained.

“It’s definitely really mental too, because of timing (for each race). Because obviously you want to get better each time. But it takes a lot to do that.”

Swimmers also do a lot of dry-land work as well. At times Hall will lift weights, do agility work, and run outside.

Hall’s first meet with Terre Haute North is Thursday, Nov. 12.

Hall has a goal of making it to the state finals. In IHSAA swimming, there is a sectional round, and you must qualify for the sectional finals. Then the winner of each race advances to the state finals.

“That would be really cool,” Hall said. “I need to work on my time a little bit with my dives (off the starting block). My takeoff is so-so.”

While others go to the pool on a hot day to cool off or find a beach to enjoy the sun and sand, Hall is drawn to the pool for the competition.

“I really like the competition, and I love team sports, but I also like being in an individual sport because of the timing,” Hall said. “I know I can control that, though I don’t know every time I get in the water what that time will be.

“I just love swimming more than anything else.”

Hall is currently taking part in the nursing program with Twin Rivers. She wants to attend Indiana State University to study nursing and eventually become a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA).

A CRNA is an Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (APRN) who specializes in administering anesthesia and managing patient pain.

She isn’t sure if she’ll swim in college.

“I’ve definitely thought about it but what I’m going to study it will take up a lot of my time,” Hall said. “So I’m not really sure if I would want to.”

But if Hall decides to give college swimming a try at ISU, she’s already proven she would have the motivation and time-management skills to do so.