When senior Katie Gruendler was 5, her parents put her in swimming lessons at Baldwin. Now she teaches those same lessons, coaches a middle school team, and swims for the high school.
Every fall, Gruendler and other members of the Baldwin swim team host swimming lessons for children in the community as a fundraiser to cover the season’s costs. Gruendler said that she enjoys watching the development of the new swimmers.
“You can see the kids grow. They become more comfortable with you and the water,” she said. Some kids really love it.”
Two years ago, Gruendlers’ coaches asked her to help coach the middle school team. Gruendler said coaching has let her get to know the underclassmen on the high school team better because she had coached a few of them in the past.
As a senior, Gruendler acts as a leader, sophomore Rhia Diffendal said.
“When she wants something done, she’s really nice about it, especially towards the freshmen,” Diffendal said. “When she wants us to get together for something, she always makes sure that it happens.”
Diffendal said she has swum with Gruendler since her seventh-grade year, progressing as a swimmer with her help.
“She’s helped me improve a lot of my strokes, as well as my flip turns,” she said.
Senior Brayden Kuch said that Gruendler has “inspired (him) to push, not skip sets, and be really hard working.”
Kuch agrees that Gruendler is skilled at leading the newer members of the team.
“She’s really good at communicating with the girls, especially the freshmen and the younger, newer kids,” he said.
Gruendler said that she has always felt a connection to swimming, even after looking into other sports.
“As a kid, it was the only sport that I liked,” she said.
Gruendlers’ events are the 500 freestyle and the 200 freestyle. She said that she primarily swims long distances.
“We have been working a lot of distance sets in practice that have been helping me,” she said.
She said that she was able to set a few new personal records early in the season and has been working consistently on getting even better.
Gruendler said that the close environment on the team makes the sport more enjoyable for everyone.
“Swimming has always been a close-knit community. A lot of us have known each other for a long time,” she said.
Diffendal said that one of the team-bonding traditions is decorating their swim lockers.
“Decorating our lockers last year with her and the rest of the swim team was really really fun,” she said. “We would play really bad music and dance and laugh and talk, and it was really fun.”
Overall, Diffendal said, Gruendler has made a positive impact on her and the rest of the team.
“Katie is always so sweet, and any time that I want someone to rant to, like an upperclassman, she’s always my go-to person,” Diffendal said. “She is like the older sister that I never had.”
