Next stop for Enfield's Farris: U.S. Olympic swimming trials

Adam Betz, Journal Inquirer, Manchester, Conn.
·5 min read

Feb. 26—Since she was 13 years old, Aislin Farris had been working towards her goal of qualifying for the U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials.

Those three years of working and training culminated in 2 1/4 minutes on Jan. 17 at the TYR Pro Series meet in Richmond, Virginia.

That day, she finished the 200-meter long-course backstroke in 2:14.40, a time fast enough to accomplish her goal.

The 16-year-old will now compete in Wave I of the Olympic Trials June 4-7 in Omaha, Nebraska.

"I looked up at the board and saw that I had made it and I was just so excited," Farris said. "I've never been so excited about a race in my life. It was just super awesome."

Farris is a junior at Enfield High who has already committed to the University of North Carolina. She took her first swimming lesson when she was 3 and joined her first team at the Holyoke, Massachusetts YMCA four years later. She credits her first swim teacher and coach Emily Iacolo as her influence.

"She really got me interested in it," Farris said. "I always just loved being in the water and I loved watching the older kids swim. I always thought it was so cool."

The following year, Nick Rice became the team's coach. When he moved to Bluefish Swim Club West out of the Springfield Boys and Girls Club in Feb. 2016, Farris followed. She's been under Rice's tutelage at Bluefish ever since.

Though the 200 back is her best event, Farris also races in the 400 individual medley, and also occasionally swims in 200 IM, distance freestyle and butterfly events.

Farris won her first New England Local Swimming Committee title when she was 11. A year later, she was the top swimmer in her age group in the LSC. By age 13, she had earned her first junior nationals cut.

In 2019, she qualified for the Phillips 66 Nationals in the 200m back and the 400m IM. That same year, Farris was one of 48 girls invited to the National Select Camp at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

"She's progressed a lot from an 8-year-old until now," Rice said. "She's always been a very strong-willed, self-motivated, nothing's-going-to-stand-in-my-way kind of kid."

Because the COVID-19 pandemic limited her pool time in 2020, and freed up time in her schedule, Farris decided to swim for her high school team for the first time in the fall.

"Like I like to say, I just kind of got to borrow her for the high school season for a short time," Enfield coach Debbie Goodman said with a laugh.

On the final day of the Richmond meet, Farris achieved the Olympic Trials cut in the final event of the day.

"I was really determined to get it because, it wouldn't be my last chance, I would have other meets to do it," Farris said. "But I just wanted to get it out of the way and get the pressure off my shoulders."

Farris said that during a race, she can sometimes gauge her time and sometimes she can't. In this race, she knew the whole time.

"I would say the last 25 meters, I just got an adrenaline rush and I was super excited and I knew I had the cut," Farris said. "As soon as I touched the wall, I knew I had the cut."

Her 2:14.40 was 0.29 seconds faster than the qualifying mark for Wave I and trimmed more than a second off her previous best (2:15.50). She finished the race third.

Farris now has two paths to reach Wave II of the trials in order to have a shot at the Olympic team. The first is being one of the top two finishers in the Wave I finals. The second is besting the Wave II time standard of 2:12.94 by May 30. Doing so will allow her to skip Wave I completely.

The top two finishers in the Wave II finals will be named to the Olympic team. Wave II is June 13-20 in Omaha.

The Tokyo Olympics were originally scheduled for last summer, but postponed to 2021 because of the pandemic. While she believes she still would have qualified for the trials last year, Farris said the extra training time helped assure her qualification.

"I think that I'm more prepared and I've been working a lot," she said. "I picked up lifting over the pandemic, which has helped substantially. And I think I'm in a better position to swim faster, swim better at Olympic Trials right now."

As she continues prepping for the trials, Farris has also had to balance things that every 16-year-old has to: schoolwork and social life. But that's nothing new for Farris. She's maintained a 4.0 GPA in high school, and has been named a Scholastic All-American by USA Swimming all three years.

In September, she made the verbal commitment to North Carolina.

"As time went on, I realized that that was going to be the best fit for me," Farris said. "They have great academic resources as well as great coaches, great facilities. It was a great campus. I just loved everything about it."

She has interests in history and linguistics, and hopes to one day be a lawyer. But before she can get there, there's still work to be done in June.

"I'm very excited," Farris said. "I'm a little nervous. But I usually do better when I'm a little nervous."

For coverage of the Connecticut Sun and professional women's basketball, Hartford Athletic pro soccer team, as well as area high school and local youth sports, follow Adam Betz on Twitter: @AdBetz1, Facebook: Adam Betz — Sports Writer, and Instagram: @AdBetzJI.