Galindo
Jillian Galindo is a mystery to both swimmers and coaches.
Coaches can’t figure out why she doesn’t care for the easiest event in high school swimming, and swimmers can’t solve how to defeat her in a race.
While most prefer to do the freestyle, the Robbinsville High School senior is all about the breaststroke and backstroke, with butterfly third on the list.
“My least favorite stroke is freestyle, which is really weird,” Galindo said with a laugh. “That’s usually the first stroke you learn, and everyone likes it because it’s the easiest.
“I think doing the stroke events makes the race more interesting. I’m kind of switching things up a bit, which is more fun to do than just laps and laps of freestyle.”
And don’t ever think a coach wouldn’t kill for someone like Galindo. Finding a quality stroke swimmer is always a blessing among high school mentors.
“She can do all four successfully,” first-year coach Brandon Hullings said. “It’s amazing. It opens up the lineup for some people who are sprint specified or distance specified. I can just say ‘Hey, I need a breaststroker or a 200 freestyle swimmer,’ and she’s always willing to do it.”
And she does it right.
Galindo has won nearly every race she has been in this season, helping the Ravens to a 5-4 record in their first nine meets. Her main events have been the 200 individual medley and the butterfly, and she has been trying to improve her freestyle stroke in the IM as that is where she loses ground during the race.
“It’s so funny the amount of coaches over the last nine years, whether it’s high school or club, who have tried to fix my freestyle so much,” Galindo said. “They just find it strange they can’t fix it. We have a lot of good freestylers on our team so that’s good, it gives me a chance to do the other strokes.”
Galindo took to swimming at an early age, jumping in the pool before she reached kindergarten and signing up for lessons at Peddie by 8.
“I don’t ever remember complaining about the water,” she said. “I was never going to complain about taking lessons; I couldn’t wait to do it. After I took my first few lessons, I tried out for the (Peddie Aquatics) club team and I’ve been there for the last nine years.”
She started out focusing solely on the breaststroke, but eventually started floating between breast, back and IM. Her current favorite is backstroke, though it changes, she said.
“I have a love-hate relationship with the breaststroke,” she said. “That’s tough. And my butterfly is not good, but it’s better than the free. I’ve been working a lot on the fly at Peddie and sometimes coach Brandon puts me in, so I don’t mind it.”
Galindo’s coach at Peddie was Pam Owens, who was also her coach at Robbinsville. When Owens moved to Florida last spring, Galindo admitted to being a little nervous about getting a new coach her final year in high school. But it has all worked out, as Hullings is a former swimmer who has ample club coaching experience.
“We had (Owens) for quite a while,” Jillian said. “With her going away, we figured it was going to be a lot different. We were kind of nervous at first.
“But coach Brandon is a nice guy. He really knows a lot. He actually used to swim with my club coach and used to race, and he coaches other club teams. He knows a lot about swimming.”
Hullings made sure to meet with all his seniors before the season.
“I told them it was a transition year, and if there was ever an issue, come talk to me,” the coach said. “Her and the other captains have done a nice job of mediating the issues. Jillian has actually been good with organizing pasta parties, things like that.”
During her first three years of high school, Galindo did the 500 free and the 200 IM, and she recorded seventh-place finishes in both at last year’s Mercer County meet. This year, she will probably be in the backstroke and 200 IM (and relays) and is hoping for a top six finish in each.
Her best time in the back is 1:03, which she has been close to most of the year. It’s 2:19 in the 200 IM, and she is hoping to get personal records in both by the time counties arrive.
“She’s very focused,” Hullings said. “She’s supportive of the team, and she’s focused on what she has to do. Behind the blocks she has one headphone in, her eyes are on the pool focused on what she can do. She spends a lot of time working at it.
“And she’s always open to critiques. She’ll always come up after the race and say ‘How did my backstroke look? What can I do to make it better?’ She always wants to keep learning.”
She will keep learning after high school as well, as Galindo has already been accepted to five of the nine colleges she applied to. Hopeful of majoring in physical therapy, she is waiting to hear from the other four, including Skidmore, her top choice. But she is already in at NCAA Division I schools Fairfield, Loyola, Delaware and Massachusetts, and Division III Ithaca.
“She wants to swim at the college level, and she will,” Hullings said. “I know she’s a very good student, and she has the ability and the talent.”
And the desire, unless it’s the easiest stroke out there. But no one is complaining.
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