Caitlyn Lo may be known as being a star student and major contributor to life at Bellarmine, but when 2:30 p.m. appears on the clock, she becomes a star swimmer. However, Lo is not a Bellarmine athlete during this season, but rather swims under the banner of Federal Way High School, and with that, its own challenges arrive.

Being a member of the Girls’ tennis team, FBLA, Key Club, Activities Board, the Outreach team, Band, the Lectors and Marine Chemistry Program, Lo is used to the business that comes with being an active member of the Bellarmine community, but often times this impedes on the rigid 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. daily swim schedule of Federal Way. She recounted a time where she had to pick between a swim meet and the Swing Dance Night, a required band performance. She fondly remembers the awkwardness of that particular occasion when her swim coach and music teacher Casey Whitson fought over her attendance. Lo may have been able to laugh about it now, but she made it clear that that the stress of picking and trying to be there for both was overwhelming.

Her love of swim is obvious, but Lo still struggles with having different schedules and student life with her fellow swimmers. She said, “I can’t always relate to what they are talking about,” when referring to the daily lives of her Federal Way teammates. The differing schedules often cause conflict with her coach. Due to travel time,Lo arrives at practice usually 45 minutes late. However, Lo never views her time with the swim team as a negative. She enjoys the positive experience of meeting new people and interacting with different people outside of Bellarmine.

The overarching question whether Bellarmine supports these outside of school athletes was answered by Lo in fairly simple terms. Yes, because they let them leave early and letter in the sport.
She made it clear that this was great, but Lo also said, “It would be really cool if they allowed all of the swimmers, divers, and polo players to get together [in their respective seasons] to make a short clip introducing us at the sport’s assemblies.” She also notes that when trying to start a swim team last year, she felt shut down even though she put in copious amounts of work to solve the logistics of a team. This year, she is hopeful to start one.

Stay tuned for more of the spotlight series of Bellarmine’s “Unseen Athletes.”