Newsday Athlete of the Week is Shoreham-Wading River swimmer Emily Herr

Emily Herr has been establishing her dominance in the water for years, and she doesn’t plan on stopping.

Herr began swimming at just 6 years old, and from the first time getting into the pool, she was a natural; swimming was in her blood. “My mom was a swimmer growing up, so at a very young age, my parents had me practicing in the pool,” she said.

She started on the Three Villages Club swim team, where she trained with Mark Anderson, and as a seventh-grader, she joined the Shoreham-Wading River swim team.

Shoreham doesn’t have a pool on campus, so the junior trains with Anderson, and competes as an independent swimmer.

At the Suffolk girls swimming championship last week at Stony Brook University, Herr won the 200-yard individual medley in 2 minutes, 3.90 seconds, an All-American consideration time.

After a 15-minute break, she jumped in the pool for her second race, the 100 butterfly.

“For my 100 fly, I hadn’t dropped time on it in a long time, so I was kind of expecting to shed some time off since I have been working so hard in practice,” Herr said.

Herr will compete in the 200 IM and the 100 butterfly at the state championship Nov. 18 at the Webster Aquatic Center.

Herr trains with Anderson at Stony Brook six times a week, so she says she felt at ease and confident during this meet because it felt just like practice.

“I was in Lane 5, which is actually my lane during practice, so I felt comfortable and knew I was going to do well,” she said.

Anderson says that since he knows Herr so well, he can get a sense of how she’s going to perform in her races.

“I can usually tell how her meet is going to go based on that first swim, so as soon as I saw her 200 IM, I kind of knew her 100 fly was going to be good,” Anderson said.

Herr not only won the 100 butterfly, she set a county record with a time of 55.17.

“When I looked up and saw that time, I was so happy. It felt so good to finally drop time,” Herr said. “I got out of the pool and gave my coach a big hug.”

Although Anderson isn’t surprised that she won, he said she completely exceeded his expectations. “Her workload has been relatively high going into this meet because we’re preparing for states. I expected her to be right around her best time, which was a 55.90, and anything around that I was going to be really happy with.”

For Anderson, it’s been a rewarding 10 years watching Herr become a  champion.  “Working with those under-8 swimmers, they’re always good because they’re filled with a ton of energy, but there was always something different about Emily,” he said. “She has this indescribable drive from such a young age, so it’s been really rewarding to watch that drive fuel her into the swimmer she is now.”