Whether she’s taking notes during Honors Calculus or diving in a pool, Megan Reiter makes a splash.
The St. Mary’s High School senior has captained its swim team since her freshman year. Specializing in the 100 butterfly and 200 individual medley, Reiter said she feels as comfortable in the pool as she does on dry land.
“I’ve pretty much been swimming almost all of my life,” Reiter said. “It has taught me discipline and that you have to work hard in order to get what you want.”
A leader in the truest sense of the word, Reiter acknowledged that her success in the pool goes hand-in-hand with the success of the team.
“At a meet, you are competing for points for your team,” Reiter said. “When it comes down to it, your individual time is how you rate yourself on how you’ve succeeded as the season goes on. But you’re also doing it for your team, to make them proud. I feel that when my team succeeds, it’s also a personal success.”
The discipline and hard work she learned from swimming transfers to her academics. Reiter boasts a 4.17 GPA, while taking courses such as AP American Government, Honors Microbiology and Honors Latin.
Reiter is the vice president of the senior class, and a member of both the National Honor Society and the National Latin Honor Society.
“Both as a student and an athlete, Megan is a phenomenal leader,” said Stephanie Grajeda, an assistant swim coach and science teacher. “She does that by displaying to the underclassmen that she can get phenomenal grades and do well in the pool. I think doing both is extremely hard to do, but she does it with ease.”
Reiter has been accepted to The Catholic University of America, Loyola University Maryland, Boston College and Villanova University.
Reiter volunteers as a swim instructor with Splash, a City of Annapolis program that teaches underprivileged children how to be comfortable in water. She assists with events and activities at St. Mary’s Church, where she is a parishioner.
Grajeda hopes that Reiter’s maturity and positive traits rub off on underclassmen.
“If I were to have a daughter, I’d want her to be like Megan,” Grajeda said. “She’s a great student in and out of the pool. She makes great decisions and I really respect her for that. We’ll be sad to see her go.”