From the time she started swimming in elementary school, Madison Moretti had been a sprinter. Dive in, swim as fast as she could and get out. That was her mantra.

As she got older, however, some of her coaches in high school and in club suggested she might be better suited to swim distance events. Moretti wouldn’t hear of it, and she resisted.

When Moretti got to Cal (Pa.), coach April Gitzen joined the ranks of those who could see distance events as Moretti’s path to success. And this time, resistance was futile.

“I’ve been swimming short distance for 14 years of my career up until last year when April said, ‘You’re a distance swimmer,’ and I said, ‘No, I am not,’ ” said the Freeport grad. “But here I am.”

And “here” frequently has been at (or near) the top of the podium for the sophomore. Her performances have helped Cal go 9-0 in dual meets.

In the Vulcans’ first two meets of the season, Moretti took first in the 1,000 freestyle, clocking 11 minutes, 25.34 seconds on Oct. 21 against Shippensburg and Fairmont State then 11:16.92 seconds against Davis & Elkins and Frostburg State on Oct. 22. In a recent tri-meet with fellow PSAC schools East Stroudsburg and Kutztown, she placed second in the mile (1,650 free) at 19:11.41. It was the first time she swam the event this season.

She also placed eighth in the mile (18:06.96) at a meet that included Division I opponents Campbell, St. Francis (Pa.) and host Liberty.

Moretti also swims the 200 and 500 free and slots in with the relays. It’s a … ahem … long way from where she was a couple of years ago.

“I always hadn’t liked distance,” she said. “I was afraid of the yardage. I was afraid of how much time I might be spending in the pool. It’s been an ongoing endeavor getting me into distance, getting me used to distance, getting me to practice more. … I’ve seen a lot of improvement.”

As Exhibit A, Moretti, in her season-opening 1,650 race, dropped 18 seconds from her previous personal best.

The conversion from sprinter to distance swimmer, she said, relied heavily on learning how to pace herself during a race. Breaking the race down into smaller segments and trying to maintain pace for each, she said, has helped her adjust.

But she hasn’t done it alone. Moretti said she relies heavily on her card holder, senior Rachel Kennedy. Kennedy’s job is to position herself behind the start/finish point with placards that show how many laps remain.

Her role is more involved, however, as she will move the card up and down to signal Moretti to swim faster or side to side to signal her to slow down.

Swimming distance also puts more of a premium on recovery time, she said.

“You kind of have to be smart with it,” she said. “You can’t hurt yourself. You can’t overwork yourself because that’s when your work goes in vain.

“Being an athlete is not just working as much as you can. You need down time to process the process you’re going through.”

Moretti still swims the occasional sprint event. Swimming sprints, Moretti said, helps keep her heart rate up.

And she hasn’t forgotten how to swim fast. At the Vulcans’ Nov. 5 meet with Lock Haven — the team’s final dual meet before breaking for more than a month for the holidays — Moretti won the 100 and 200 free.

The PSAC championships are more than two months away, but Moretti already has her goals in mind. She said she prefers to keep her target times and finishes to herself so she can remain focused on them.

In the meantime, she will continue to refine her distance skills, skills that just two years ago she never dreamed she would be perfecting.

“When I got more consistent, that’s when I realized distance really is my style,” she said. “With these big distance events, especially the mile … it’s big, it’s scary, it’s challenging and it puts a lot of strain on your body. But it’s the best wins that feel the worst, my coach told me.”

Still, when asked what goes through her mind during those long-distance swims, Moretti confessed to one theme that often repeats.

“I always think about when I’m going to get out of here,” she said with a laugh.

Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)