Wall swimmer Danielle Griggs didn’t have the storybook ending to her high school swimming career, but showed something more important than a top result.  Watch this RYPT Spotlight to learn how an elite athlete conducts herself with grace and class through tough times

Shore Sports Zone traveled to the Gloucester County Institute of Technology expecting to tell the story of Wall swimmer Danielle Griggs closing out her high school career with a pair of overall state titles at the NJ Meet of Champions.  In the preliminaries, Griggs had the top overall time in both the 50 yard freestyle and 100 yard freestyle.

In an intense race in the 50 free, Griggs touched the wall with a time of 23.41 seconds, just .01 better than future Harvard swimmer Hayden Christensen.  Danielle spent the new few minutes smiling and savoring the goal of being the fastest girls swimmer in New Jersey.  But at the medal stand, she was not to be found.  Griggs was disqualified from the 50 free as a result of a false start.

Just 20 minutes later, Griggs showed remarkable mental toughness and grit to get back in the pool for the 100 freestyle where she finished in third place.  A pair of victories would have been the perfect way to end a high school career, but the way that Danielle handled herself through a heartbreaking situation was even more impressive.

The Meet of Champions had extra meaning to Danielle, because she didn’t compete last year due to a shoulder injury.  She credits her time at Reach Your Potential Training to get back to 100 percent.  Griggs set a meet record in the 50 free at the Shore Conference Championships and will attend Virginia Tech University this fall where she will major in engineering and swim for the H2okies.

 

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Reach Your Potential Training has become the home of many of the Shore Conference’s top athletes in numerous sports.  A lot of the athletes you see on the highlights on Shore Sports Zone are putting in the hard work in critical training at RYPT to get ready for their season.  Each month, SSZ profiles a male and female athlete who train at Reach Your Potential Training.