As a high school student, it is often very hard to balance your grades, social life, and the pursuit of your passions and still getting a sufficient amount of sleep. Other than the sufficient amount of sleep part, Katherine Reiter, a Junior at Stamford High School,  has managed to fulfill all these ideals.

In between taking AP and UConn classes and participating in extracurricular activities such as “Build On” and founding “SHS Gives Back,” she has managed to spare some time for participating in the sport that has taken up much of her life, synchronized swimming. Katherine has practically lived in the water since beginning her synchronized swimming career 11 years ago. Now, she competes for the New Canaan YMCA’s “Aquianas.” According to Reiter, on average, she spends approximately 17 hours every week under water.

It may sound like a piece of cake at first, but this is not your average swim team. She can only describe her practices as “grueling,” as they train you to spend elongated amounts of time upside-down underwater. The Aquianas learn to sync themselves with the dancers around them as to form the perfect series of kicks to gain them a round of applause. The swimmers are taught to support themselves without touching the ground, all while pulling off a flawless routine above water by kicking their legs in a series of synchronized movements to entrance both the audience and if they’re lucky, the judges too. Two of the normally four minutes within the routine are spent under the water and their routine has to fit the standards within that time.

Synchronized swimming is a year round sport and if often spent training for their upcoming competitions. Competition season is normally January to July and can be held all over the country. She’s gone to national competitions in Long Island, California, Seattle, Arizona, and North Carolina. The team has only been improving. Last year for the 13 to 15 year old category, the team qualified for third and this year has maintained their title by coming in third again but for the 16 to 17 year old age group. Nationals meets normally last a week and are always an exciting time. However, naturally they do happen to get in the way of her schoolwork. She’s currently trying to figure out how she’s going to survive being gone a week before April break without drowning in schoolwork. But a nice tan in Cali might just be worth it.