The girl’s swimming team at Harriton is one of the least recognized sports teams in the entire school, yet thanks to one senior, it has become progressively more successful each year. Nicole Sutliff, one of the four senior captains on the girl’s team along with Helen Gaynor, Katherine Kanehann and Kate Galbo, has found success in her high school career, having made districts the past two years. Nicole is also a key member of both the field hockey and softball teams and is one of the captains of the latter. This season she hopes to make districts once again, having already qualified in the 200-meter freestyle relay, and add onto the team’s previous success from last year.

This year the girl’s swimming team is hoping to build off of their ever increasing success and send more girls to districts than any previous year. Last year they sent Nicole along with Moira Lavelle, Devon Kelly and Julia Carp and this year they have more underclassmen than ever before, so hopefully this influx of young talent can help. On the
topic of underclassmen on the swim team, Nicole said “The girl’s and boy’s swim teams are dominated by underclassmen. There are only 4 senior girls and 4 senior boys on the team. It has been so exciting to see more and more people come out for the team the past two years. I can only hope it continues to grow”. When asked about talented young swimmers, Nicole was quick to mention junior Moira Lavelle and sophomores Julia Carp, Erin Hayden and Devon Kelly. As swimming is such a major part of Nicole’s life it is not surprising that she started young, “I started swimming competitively when I was six years old. It started as a way to meet friends at my summer club but turned into so much more. I joined a winter club team and I’ve been swimming ever since”. When the new school building was built there was minor discussion about a possible pool at both high schools, but in the end it never materialized. This causes a minor inconvenience for swimmers, as they have to take buses to Lower Merion High School. However, Nicole has a very positive attitude on the Lower Merion pool, “It would be great if Harriton had a pool, it would make practicing so much easier and maybe more people would come out for the team, but it’s kind of cool to get to see friends at Lower Merion on your way to practice or kids on the LM team”. After a successful high school career up to this point, Nicole is looking forward to the rest of this season and hopes for the continued success of the team all the way up to the district level.

As a three-sport athlete in high school, it is often hard to find time to fit in other extracurricular activities, but Nicole has managed to become a major part of student council as the co-chair of the events committee and one of the co-creators of “The Herd”. “Athletic events are a big part of high school, and being an athlete, support from my peers is important as well. It’s an entity that almost every school has, and when the three of us (myself, and seniors Dan Posner and Teddy Ross) and some others realized we didn’t have a “spirit group” at Harriton we decided to do something about it.” Nicole is also looking forward to college and continuing to play many of her sports at either an intramural or club level. She also hopes to add some sports to her resume, which were not available in Pennsylvania, like surfing and wakeboarding. On her top colleges she said, “I actually just got into University of Miami and a few other schools, but I’m waiting on a couple still. I’m probably between U Miami and U C Santa Barbara in California, I want to go far away and somewhere warm!” Wherever she ends up, this amazing three-sport athlete and co-creator of the Herd will surely bring her charisma and athletic skills with her.