Freshman Zadah Taylor finding role for Mason girls swimming

Zadah Taylor didn’t know what to expect entering her debut season on varsity in the Mason girls swimming program.

The freshman wasn’t even aware you could score points and win a swim meet.

But Taylor quickly found out that swimming in high school was more than about trying to set personal records.

And she has found a way to become a contributor for the Bulldogs as a first-year varsity swimmer. 

The LSJ girls high school athlete of the week has emerged as a contributor on a few of Mason’s relays and helped the Bulldogs win their own invitational on Sept. 12.

Taylor is part of 200 medley and 200 freestyle relays that entered the week ranked among the top 10 fastest in Greater Lansing.

“Being able to contribute to my team by winning first and second places with my team in different relays, and helping to contribute to our points that we score every meet is a really big motivation for me along with just being able to improve my times and just getting personal records,” Taylor said.

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The growth toward becoming a varsity contributor for Taylor began two years ago when she joined a club team led by former Mason varsity coach Connie Cantrell. Taylor began to notice improvement in that first year as a seventh grader and started to make state cuts in club regionals last season as an eighth grader.

“It just progressively got better from there,” Taylor said.

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This season Taylor has ran with her opportunities, which included at the Mason Invitational when she won a 50 yard freestyle that was a combination of a 25 fly and 25 free, placed sixth in the 50 butterfly and was part of the winning 200 freestyle relay and the runner-up 200 medley relay.

Taylor is determined to keep working hard to keep her spot on the Bulldogs’ relays while also continuing her growth.

“i really want to make state cuts and obviously progressively improve my times,” Taylor said. “I also want to get stronger muscle-wise. We have weight room practices, so being able to have the body tone and the timing for cuts for states are a bunch of personal goals of mine.”

Contact Brian Calloway at bcalloway@lsj.com. Follow him on X @brian_calloway.

This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Freshman Zadah Taylor finding role for Mason girls swimming