Gig Harbor senior forgoes high school swimming, signs National Letter of Intent

Christina McCann to join Wolfpack this fall

Marques Hunter

of the Gateway

Gig Harbor High School graduate Christina McCann didn’t have the normal prep swimming career.

Slated to attend North Carolina State University this fall on a partial athletic scholarship, the King Aquatics Swim Club elite member didn’t participate for the Tides swim team because her schedule didn’t allow it.

Gig Harbor could have used her — she swims the 200-yard breaststroke in 2 minutes, 21.7 seconds — but McCann doesn’t regret her decision to stick with the Federal Way club.

“It’s so competitive but also so fun to be around people who are fast,” McCann said. “It wasn’t a big deal (not swimming for Gig Harbor High), because the people I swam with are very motivating.”

McCann said NCAA Division I swimming has been one of her goals. She joined the King Aquatics Swim Club in 2006, but she’s been racing in the water since she was in middle school.

McCann said the practices are extremely tiring, but it’s the training that motivates her. She’s eager to race against some of the best swimmers from the Atlantic Coast Conference.

McCann said she chose NC State over the University of Hawaii because of an even balance between academics and athletics that became apparent when she took a recruiting trip to Raleigh, N.C.

McCann had a 3.9 grade-point average at Gig Harbor High. She took advanced classes in calculus and physics.

McCann said she hopes to double major in Spanish and textile engineering.

“I want to help invent the fastest swimming suit,” she said.

McCann’s big-picture goal — a feat already accomplished by club teammate Lindsey Marchand, a three-time state champion from Peninsula High School — is to qualify for the U.S. Olympic trials prior to the 2012 London Games.