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09/26/2019 12:00 AMMany of the athletes on the North Haven girls’ swimming and diving team see success in the pool because they compete throughout the year. This is certainly the case for sophomore Giulia Faulkner, who set the tone for her 2019 campaign by putting in a lot of offseason work with the Hamden-North Haven swim club. Indians’ Head Coach Martha Phelan says that Giulia has made an immense amount of progress during the past year.
“I have seen a real growth from last year to now. I was watching Giulia this past spring and summer, and I was really impressed with how much she improved,” says Phelan. “Giulia came into this season with all that hard work under her belt and is already building on it. One thing I see is incredible maturity from last year to this year.”
Giulia values the experience of competing for each of her teams. Giulia knows that swimming on a year-round basis helps her stay at the top of her game.
“The North Haven team is like a sisterhood. We’re all so together and encourage each other. If not for the team, I wouldn’t accomplish the things I have,” Giulia says. “The other team is very competitive, and you have to look at everyone as competition. They both provide that extra effect to really make sure we’re going to have a good swim.”
Since she can swim all four strokes, Giulia naturally competes in the 200 individual medley for North Haven. Giulia’s specialty is swimming the distance freestyle events.
“I swim the 500 and 200 free. I have a lot of endurance and feel like, when it comes down to it, the pressure and last seconds of a race really motivate me,” says Giulia. “When it comes to racing, it’s easy. Freestyle almost comes natural.”
Coach Phelan notes that Giulia has an uncanny ability to pace herself in the distance races. Phelan says that Giulia always has enough left in the tank to finish strong.
“She just seems to be able to never fatigue and, in the distance events, she’s very consistent, which is huge to be able to maintain a strong pace,” Phelan says. “Giulia is able to not only swim fast, but she has that ability to kick it in a higher gear towards the end of a race. When other swimmers start to falter, she can kick it into a higher gear.”
Giulia and her teammates are motivated to have a memorable campaign this fall. After finishing second at the Class M State Championship the past two years, the Indians want to bring home the gold in 2019.
“Last year we came in second, so winning it would mean so much to everyone,” says Giulia. “What I like about the team is the atmosphere. Everyone is always supporting one another, and that pushes us and helps us race better. Everybody has such a great attitude, and it’s so positive for the team. I couldn’t accomplish the things I have if the team didn’t support me. The whole team is motivated, and I think we can do it.”
Even though she’s only a sophomore, Giulia is already thinking about competing at the collegiate level. Giulia knows that she has a long road ahead of her if she wants to swim for a top-notch program like Stanford or North Carolina, but she plans on giving it everything she has in order to get there.
“I would like to swim in college and get a scholarship,” says Giulia. “From the minute I stepped into high school last year, I’ve had an idea of where I want to go. I watch a lot of college swimming, and they stuck out to me.”