By Christopher Tremblay, Staff Sports Writer

Being in the water is something that Ashland’s Mandy Reid loved doing and at a very young age her parents decided to get her involved in swimming. The youngster found that she would rather stay in the water all day long instead of getting out. She also noticed that she was very comfortable in the water and loved to swim competitively, while meeting new people.

Her senior campaign with the Clockers is about to strike midnight and swimming with her teammates will become a thing of the past. She is constantly thinking about continuing her swimming on the collegiate level but is unsure of where.

“I am not sure where I am going to college, but I would like to continue swimming,” she said. “If not for a college I’ll definitely find myself in a pool somewhere for fun.”

Currently Reid has been talking with the Coach at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth to see if swimming for the school could be a possibility. However, in order to do so she’s going to have to go through another hip surgery.

The Ashland native has been swimming on club teams pretty much her entire life and was looking forward to swimming with the Clockers when she got to high school. Two years prior to entering high school she began taking on the distance swimming events as she felt it was more in her wheelhouse. 

“I am not good at the sprinting events and would rather swim the longer events like the 200 and 500 freestyle as I have the endurance,” Reid said.

During her sophomore season, her last fully heathy year Reid finished 8th in the South Sectionals with a time of 5:32 in the 500 free and 16th in the Division 2 State Tournament with a time of 5:33. She also was able to set the school record in the 200 IM at the Sectionals with a time of 2:20 (no one on the team has been within three seconds of it since).

“Ever since I got to high school I wanted a record,” she said. “This senior had the 200 IM record and I was close to her so each meet I pushed myself further and further in the event until I was eventually able to see my name up on the board; it made me very happy.”

Who knows what else she would have been able to accomplish over her past two seasons had she not been hurt and need to have the first surgery: reconstructive hip surgery.

“It had been developing overtime and it began hurting a few years before high school. During my freshman and sophomore years it was manageable, but last year it really hurt,” Reid said. “The pain was starting to affect my times and I was having difficulty pushing off the wall to make my turn. My kick was not the same and eventually I could barely move in the water.”

Being that the water was her comfort, Reid was not having fun at all. The pain was horrible and at that time she didn’t even know if she’d be able to swim ever again. It was a frightening experience.

“She pretty much spent her entire junior year swimming in pain yet still competed and was a dependable scorer throughout the season,” Clocker Swim Coach Mike Kotch said. “She is just that talented, where at 50% she can still impact a meet.”

After having the hip surgery Reid found herself rehabbing so that she could get back not the pool for her final campaign with her Ashland teammates and enjoy her senior season.

“I was on crutches for two months and back in the water soon after that although just floating, but I was glad to be there,” she said. “I was so happy and blessed to be able to get back into the pool and eventually compete again.”

Although she was still having some pain, it was a different pain and she worked through it and began to see the improvement over time. The pain went away as she got stronger and was beyond happy when she knew that she would be able to compete in her senior season.

Coach Kotch noted that despite her ups and downs, Reid has been a leader, motivator and a great teammate. She gets into the pool ad gives everything that she has for her team in an effort to win as much as they can. According to the coach she can do just about everything except for the breaststroke.

“She has mustered out wins in the 200 and 500 freestyle for us this season despite knowing she is a shell of herself, she comes in every night to practice smiling and working as hard as her body will allow,” he said. “She is a great reminder of what we talk about year in and year out: just give each other the best version of yourself. It won’t be easy, but it will be appreciated by your teammates and that it is a contagious positive.”

Knowing that she was not 100% herself, Reid not only wanted to go out and swim but try to help her team win in any way that she could this season.

“This year was not one of my best years, but after recovering I am very proud of myself,” she said. “Coming into the year I was just hoping that I could make it through the season while helping the team in any way that I could.”

Once the season is over she will have surgery on the other hip and go through the rehab process once again; hoping that she is ready to jump back into the pool for a collegiate team, wherever that may be later in the year.