Irene Del Castro is about to swim her 200 back at the meet Oct. 10-11.
Courtesy | Hillsdale College Athletics Department

Junior Irene Del Castro spent her childhood summers swimming in the Cantabrian Sea off the coast of Asturias, Spain. Del Castro said she misses being close to the sound of waves but has found her purpose on the Hillsdale swim team.

Del Castro’s parents taught her to swim at a very young age.

“I’ve been swimming since I was 2 years old,” Del Castro said. “My parents kind of threw me in the pool to do lessons. They wanted me to know how to swim like every little kid, because I live in a city near the beach.”

At first, Del Castro didn’t like swimming, especially for the swim club.

“I remember I didn’t like it at all,” Del Castro said. “I hated going to the pool every day, it was so tedious. But I eventually found my friends there, and I realized I was good at it.”

Once she got comfortable with her swim club and confident in herself, Del Castro began to love the discipline that comes with athleticism. 

“I love moving around, I love exercising every day, and I just think swimming is a great sport to do that,” Del Castro said. “It has given me a lot more than only the athletic ability of doing it, but all the discipline and the values that come with it as well.”

According to Del Castro there are no high school or college sports teams in Spain. She swam on her club team while she was in high school and then decided to move to America to swim in college. 

When Del Castro found out she could swim for a college as well as get scholarships for her sport in America, she decided to give her profile to the company Global College, which could connect her with international schools. 

“They post your profile in a cloud, and then coaches from the U.S. see your profile,” Del Castro said. “And then I found out about the possibility of getting a scholarship for college in the U.S.”

A recruiter then reached out to head coach Kurt Kirner about Del Castro, so he looked at her profile as a backstroker and asked her to join Hillsdale women’s swimming.

“Del Castro’s times intrigued me as a backstroker,” Kirner said. “She’s had her best times specifically in her 200 backstroke.” 

Del Castro accepted Kirner’s invitation and came onto the team as a backstoker. But it wasn’t long before she also became a distance swimmer. 

“I came in as a backstroker, and backstroke was only two events in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference, so I ended up getting into distance free,” Del Castro said. “Now my events are the 1000, the 1650, the 500 free, and then the 200 backstroke.”

Kirner said the hardest change for Del Castro to make was swimming in yard pools instead of meter pools. But in the last three years, Del Castro has given her all to make that change.

“That’s one of the things we’ve worked really hard on with her, and she’s really accepted that challenge and done a good job,” Kirner said.

Maddie London, the assistant swim coach, said Del Castro is a versatile athlete, always ready to take on anything to improve the way she swims.

“The thing about Irene is that she is very coachable, and she does want to do very well, so I’ve been working with her on race strategies and how to tackle things,” London said. “We’ve done some experimental things at practice with the sets that coach has written in terms of effort to see whether or not you need to build the race and get faster as you go, or do you need to go out faster and see if you can hold it.” 

According to Kirner, Del Castro not only works on improving herself, but she endlessly encourages her teammates.

“She does a really nice job of being supportive of people in times when they need support, pushing people in times when they need to be challenged, and pushing herself,” Kirner said. 

According to London, the team respects Del Castro as though she were one of the team captains.

“One of the things the team captains told me was that Irene has a lot of weight on this team in terms of her opinion, and I think that comes with respect,” London said. 

Del Castro’s teammate, junior Inez McNichols, said one of the reasons Del Castro is respected is because of her work ethic and the way she challenges herself.

“Irene and I shared a lane for all of last season, so I know better than anyone that she pushes herself at practice every single day,” McNichols said.“We are back swimming together this year in lane three, and I am so thrilled to keep training with her and working together through difficult sets. Some of Irene’s main events are the mile and the 1000 yard freestyle, and those distance events are not for the faint of heart. She handles these challenging races with grace.”

McNichols said she’s grateful for the influence Del Castro has on her as a friend and a teammate. 

“Our bond from persevering together in the pool is very special, but she is far more than a training partner; she is caring and checks in on me and others, she is sassy and hilarious,” McNichols said. “She makes our team better with her level of commitment to the sport and her love for her teammates.” 

Del Castro said she loves the friends she has at Hillsdale for the way they make home seem not as far away.

“One of my favorite things is living with friends,” Del Castro said. “Being so far away from home, I love spending time with the people I love here, who have become part of my family as well, and I get to do it every day.”

According to Del Castro, even with the encouragement of great friends and coaches, there are times when she feels stuck. Del Castro said when she feels this way she pushes herself to be faster. 

“Even though there are times when I feel stuck, I always have in mind that I’m working toward getting faster,” Del Castro said. “Getting best times in swimming does not happen often. As my coach always says, we look forward to being at our best and drop our times at most twice per season (at the midseason and conference championships,) so there is no place for instant gratification. All the little details we focus on every day in practice aim toward this goal, and we need to trust the process.”

Kirner said the drive that Del Castro has to be faster is what coaches look for in their swimmers, and he’s happy to see that discipline in Del Castro. 

“A lot of it is that she senses this is a place where she feels purpose, and we like that in our swimmers,” Kirner said. “We like the idea that they like to look for opportunities rather than wasting them.”