Sleep, Swim. Repeat.

years swimming for her high school, in addition to 13 years with Chattahoochee Gold Swim Club. As a five-time state champion, she has made school history and will be inducted into the Cherokee County Sports Hall of Fame in May 2024. She has competed in an abundance of national level meets, one of which was in California in 2022, and landed herself a high placement nearly every time. Along with Medina, Blasé won an Athlete of the Year Award for Women in Sports Day 2023. Not only is she a great athlete, but she is a great sport, which led her to become a 2023 Georgia Positive Athlete of the Year nominee. She will jump into the pool again this fall at the University of Alabama, where she will further her swimming career.

Girls are not the only ones dominating the waters. Hudson Evans is only a rising junior at Cherokee High School, but he has risen to be a swim leader in Cherokee County. Evans has been swimming for six years and started competitive swimming with Chattahoochee Gold Swim Club at age 10. With his talent, he made his way to the highest group of the Chattahoochee Swim Club Team at a very early age and later moved to Dynamo Swim Club. Prior to changing teams, he achieved his first cut qualification for the Futures Championship at age 15. He also is a 2022-23 season Cherokee County swimming champion. He still has a few years ahead of him before college, so Evans will continue making strides in the sport he loves.

Cherokee County might not come to mind when people think of swimming nationally, but these local athletes could one day be household names throughout America.

Hailey Weiner is the head of staff on The Talon, Etowah High School’s Newspaper. She aspires to pursue a career in journalism or law, and her dream is to make it to New York.