Senior Ruby Krikorian has been a swimmer for most of her life. After her final race at the championship meet, Krikorian was positive she wanted to continue swimming and committed to Sacred Heart University. There, she will be joining her sister, Ella Krikorian, on the swim team.

Ever since she was a toddler, Krikorian has loved to swim. Entering her sophomore year, she began swimming competitively. When she decided she wanted to go to college for swimming, she knew that Sacred Heart, a school already on her radar, was a great fit.

“I’ve always loved the school. My sister goes there and she’s on the swim team, so I go up there a lot to see her and watch the team,” Krikorian said. “I already knew it was a great area and it was always a top-three school for me. Getting the opportunity to watch made me want to swim there more.”

Other than her passion for swimming, Krikorian will be attending Sacred Heart because it had a good nursing program. She says that this was a big part of her decision to apply. She was also interested in going to different schools for soccer but when Sacred Heart reached out, it was an easier process for her and helped her realize that she wanted to swim.

“I signed up for the NCSA college recruiting program and a lot of schools reached out to me, but there were no schools that had my attention,” Krikorian said.

During her college recruitment process, Krikorian was also looking at schools in New York but they were only interested in her because she was a sprinter, which is not a long-distance swimmer but instead a fast-paced short-distance swimmer.

In her early years, Krikorian struggled to know which stroke or event was fit for her. She always knew she was a sprinter, but she started experimenting and discovering other things she was good at to have a better chance at being noticed by colleges. Swimming has taught Krikorian a lot of life lessons and has given her many learning opportunities.

“[Swimming] taught me that sprinting is a lot different than long distance and you have to train completely different for long distance sprinting,” Krikorian said. “The mindset to have is to always be positive and to look on the good side of things.”

As a swimmer at WA and a future swimmer at Sacred Heart, Krikorian has learned what to do for an opportunity at a good college.

“Don’t look down on yourself if you don’t get into a certain college. You’re always going to have a fair opportunity wherever you go,”Krikorian said. “Reach out to as many schools as you want and always give them reasons to want to have you at their school.”