Girls Swimming Jamyson Robb West Branch

An unfortunate gymnastics injury about 10 years ago opened the door to a state championship in swimming.

“I hurt my foot so I had to quit,” West Branch junior Jamyson Robb said of her first sport.

Her parents, Scottie and Tera, wanted her to give swimming a try.

“My Dad was a really good swimmer,” Jamyson said.

That encouragement paid off at the state swim meet at Canton’s C.T. Branin Natarorium, where she broke the Division II state record for the 100 breaststroke — twice.

The first time came in the Feb. 23 preliminaries.

“There were two girls before me who had broken it,” Robb said. “That made me want to break it even more.”

She did, then the next day she broke her own mark, finishing in 1:01.38 to become West Branch’s first state champion in swimming.

Robb said she felt she had swum well and knew pretty quickly that she had done it again.

“When I looked up and I saw my time blinking, I was really happy,” said Robb, explaining that the blinking light meant record. “It didn’t feel real — it was crazy.

“I looked up in the stands — coaches were jumping up and down.”

Unlike some swimmers who slap the water or yell to celebrate, Robb said she congratulated her competitors, then received hugs from her club coach Mike Davidson and her Warrior teammates.

“It was a really special moment.”

Robb entered the state meet seeded No. 1. Unlike some who might feel pressure, she said the top seed “gave me a lot of confidence — nervous, but confident.”

Robb also qualified for state in the 200 intermediate medley. She finished ninth.

“Not as well as I wanted to, but pretty well,” she said.

Because West Branch does not have a full swim team, Robb practices with the Canton McKinley team at Branin next door. An Alliance resident, she says it takes her about 30 minutes to drive to the Canton pool, 45 if she’s leaving from West Branch.

Davidson is McKinley’s coach.

Robb is on a two-week break from swimming before the club season begins.

She’s exploring college options where she can swim and study to become a physician’s assistant or a physical therapist. Among the possibilities are the University of Akron, the University of Pittsburgh and Liberty.

Her favorite subjects are science and math.

“I’m really not an English or history kind of person,” she said with a laugh. “I don’t really like memorizing, I like being to work problems out with numbers.”

— Tom Williams, The Vindicator