Teammates and spectators shouted encouragement as Paly freshman Liv Jensen dove into the pool at the start of the 100-yard breaststroke at SCVAL league finals Friday.
It became obvious that it would be a close race, as Jensen swam neck and neck with Saratoga swimmer senior Jessica Douglas. Douglas had a half second lead entering the third lap, but the undaunted Jensen raced after Douglas, inching her way towards the front. Turning into the final 25 yards, both swimmers sprinted for the wall, but Jensen proved to be unstoppable as she pulled ahead and finished in first place. Due in part to her efforts in this event and others, the Paly varsity girls demolished the competition at league finals, finishing almost 150 points ahead of the nearest opposition.

Fifteen-year-old Jensen is one of many swimmers on the Paly swim team. She is, however, one of only two freshmen to make the varsity team this year. Jensen feels that being a freshman on a team of mainly upper classmen has been a positive experience.

“When you’re a freshman you expect everybody to be older,” Jensen said. “You’re not isolated because the older kids are like, ‘hi freshman.’ The older swimmers are bigger and stronger, while I’m skinny and bony. Sometimes you notice when you step onto the block and look at the person next to you, but you don’t really pay attention to it.”

According to Jensen, the 1996 Summer Olympics inspired her to start swimming when she was seven.

“I became interested [in swimming] right after the ‘96 Olympics,” Jensen said. “I saw the Olympics on TV, which happened to be a swimming event, and I wanted to be like the Olympic athletes.”

Since then, Jensen has swum on the Stanford Covington Racing Aquatics (SCRA) club team, then at Palo Alto Stanford Aquatics (PASA) when SCRA merged with the Palo Alto Swim Club (PASC) two and a half years ago. Because Jordan Middle School did not have a swim team, this year is Jensen’s first year swimming for a school team. She has found the experiences noticeably different.

“Club swimming is individual, and you go for your individual goals,” Jensen said. “In high school swimming it’s all about winning for the team and beating the competition. The atmosphere is different. There is more of a team rivalry in high school. Even when swimming against rival clubs we’re not like, ‘we have to beat DACA.’ I guess the club and high school swimming fulfill the different needs of my swimming career.”

Jensen’s years of club swimming have paid off handsomely at Paly, where she dominates the scene, as she consistently outpaces older swimmers in virtually every event.

“Most people do really well in one or two events,” said varsity swimmer freshman Brittany Yee, who has known Jensen since the age of seven. “But Liv does really well in almost all of the events, which is very cool.”

This year is Jensen’s first year swimming in CCS. While Jensen qualified for CCS in every event she swam for Paly this year, she will only be swimming the 50- and 100-yard freestyles, where her seed times are 24.93 and 53.98, respectively. Jensen will also participate in the 4 x 50 and 4 x 100 yard freestyle relays, with seed times of 1:40.37 and 3:37.63, respectively.

“The 50 free is my best event,” Jensen said. “The 100 free would be my next best after that. To swim well you need to train a lot, but I guess you need a little talent as well.”

Jensen has also participated in swim meets outside of Palo Alto’s immediate area. In previous years, she has been to meets in Washington and Arizona. In late March, at the beginning of this year’s season, Jensen swam in the Junior Nationals Swimming Championships in Florida.

“I only joined [team practices] in the middle of the season,” Jensen said. “I was practicing for Junior Nationals, and had arranged it all with the club and school where I’d practice with the club but attend the team meets. I did okay at the Junior Nationals, coming pretty close to my best times. But I had a horrible cold right before… taking that into consideration I did really well.”

Beyond swimming, Jensen is like many other freshmen at Paly. Enrolled in many of the higher-lane classes, Jensen enjoys challenges outside the pool as well.

“I want to do well in school, and next year I’m taking all the hard classes,” Jensen said. “English is my hardest class. Even though I read a lot, its hard to take down the quotes.”

When not at school or in the pool, Jensen spends time reading books, playing video games, and browsing the Internet. Jensen also enjoys a close relationship with her older brother Sven, a junior at Paly.

“We get along well,” Jensen said. “Every so often I play basketball with Sven. Sometimes I go into his room when he doesn’t want me in there and he kicks me out, but we don’t fight or anything. I don’t get to talk with him much, because we don’t see each other much at school and I’m always at swim practice.”

Like many freshmen at Paly, Jensen has yet to make definite plans for life after high school.

“All I know is that I want to swim in college,” Jensen said. “Beyond that, I haven’t given it much thought. I’m the youngest in the family, and everybody else has their own achievements. I’m trying to do my own thing, and, I guess this sounds clichéd, but I want to ‘carve my own path’ so to speak. I have a lot more to go.”