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Boardman’s Gonda stays cool in the pool
By Joe Scalzo
YOUNGSTOWN
Boardman senior Sarah Gonda is a school record-holding, perfect GPA-earning, backstroke-loving overachiever who obsesses over every detail of the pool except one: her comfort in it.
“There’s something about water — I always just feel like I’m home,” she said. “It’s calm. I get in it and I feel like I’m in my own world. Everything in the whole world goes quiet. The stress from the day or from school — it all goes away as soon as I’m in the water.”
Gonda started swimming at the Boardman Tennis & Swim Club when she was 5, following in the footsteps (or leg kicks) of her older sister, Jessica. After brief flirtations with karate and gymnastics, she started swimming year-round at age 9, combining her natural ability with her drive to become one of the best swimmers in school history.
She holds Boardman records in both the 100-yard backstroke and 200 individual medley and helped the Spartans’ 200 medley relay set a school record at last year’s district meet and earn a berth at the state tournament.
“She’s very meticulous about what she does and how she does it,” said Spartans coach Terry O’Halloran, who has been working with Gonda for more than a decade. “If something feels wrong, she’ll come up right away and say, ‘This doesn’t feel right.’ She’s very into the technical aspects of swimming and on top of that she’s very bright, so she can apply what we tell her very quickly.”
Gonda has spent much of her life chasing her sister, whether it was in the pool (she surpassed Jessica’s best time in the 200 IM last year) or the classroom (where she has a 4.0 grade point average, just like Jessica).
“My parents always stressed doing good in school,” Gonda said. “My sister was a valedictorian at Boardman and she took all the hard classes, so I did that, too. I wanted to be as good as her, if not better.”
Gonda started swimming the IM as a freshman because Boardman needed someone in that event after Jessica graduated. She’s a three-time district qualifier in the event — she’s also qualified all three years in backstroke, her best event — although she admits she’s never quite mastered the breaststroke.
“To be a breaststroker, you need to be born with it,” she said. “It’s hard to gain the ability to do it.”
But Gonda has plenty of other natural gifts, O’Halloran said.
“She’s a very strong girl,” he said. “She has great muscle development and strength in the water and she doesn’t cut any corners; she does what she has to do to be at her best. She also knows how to fight through adversity. She had some medical issues at the beginning of the season and she was able to work through those and she’s starting to feel good now. We’re looking forward to the end of the season.”
Gonda will swim at Mount Union next season and is leaning toward a major in athletic training. And while she still has a few more weeks in her high school career, she said she can’t believe it’s almost over.
“It’s crazy how fast it’s gone,” said Gonda, one of 11 seniors who celebrated senior day in Thursday’s meet against Hubbard at Youngstown State. “It feels like I was a freshman just the other day.”