The CMS-ence of Emma Stacy

CLAREMONT, Calif. - Senior Emma Stacy (Scripps '19) was one of 11 members of the CMS women's swimming and diving team to make the trip to the NCAA Division III Championships a year ago in Indianapolis. It wasn't her only long trip last year, as the chemistry major also traveled to Malaysia as part of her research with the Keck Science Department to present her paper on the environmental effects of renewable energy technology.

Stacy, who will be one of 12 members of the Stags and Athenas who will be celebrating their Senior Day on Saturday prior to a tri-meet with Cal Lutheran and La Verne, came to CMS from St. Paul, Minnesota. She didn't have a high school swimming team, so her only competition was with a local club a couple times a week, and her experience at CMS immediately felt much different.

"I never felt a community around swimming before," she said. "It was always just club work three times a week. But then my first year here I showed up and I was really welcomed into this great community of poweful women, so that was really cool. And I swam so much faster my first year, even though I had a broken leg and mono. Just being surrounded by that community is so empowering."

She has also been a part of a CMS program that has had some great success, routinely ranking in the top 20 nationally (currently No. 12) and sending multiple swimmers to the national championships. She credits Head Coach Charlie Griffiths, now in his 18th season, for the program's lofty stature.  

"I think the team environment that Charlie and the other coaches have worked to cultivate is really key to our success," she said, "because it's an environment where we encourage each other and we like to see the success of our teammates, and that really hypes us up. And then also just the intense focus at practice is part of our team culture. Every day we really work hard and attack our sets. We don't have just an average day."

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