Four fifty a.m., a time when most high schooler are still asleep. Jamie Fitzpatrick is not only awake, she’s swimming laps. After almost 10 years of practice, Jamie knew swimming was something she wanted to continue after high school. Jamie will swim for Truman State University in the fall.

“I’ve been with the sport for so long, I can’t even really imagine just dropping it all together,” Jamie said.

Starting on the local Kirkwood summer swim team in the third grade, she has been swimming competitively ever since. She has spent the last six years swimming for the Flyers Aquatic Swim Team (FAST). With her club team she was able to develop her swimming enough to qualify for Junior Nationals, a national swim meet for swimmers under 18.

“In the last two or three years I really advanced in club swimming, and I got a few Junior National cuts. With those Junior National cuts I was even able to talk with some of the big Division I schools,” Jamie said

Jamie has also swam for KHS girls’ swim team, breaking seven school records along the way. The records she has broken include the 200 medley relay, 200 freestyle relay, 400 freestyle relay, the 50, 100 and 200 freestyle and the 100 butterfly.

“A high school team with its spirit and how often you have to race is more like a college team than a club team. So I think that high school swimming helped and prepared me,” Jamie said.

After considering Drury University, Western Kentucky University and Vanderbilt, Jamie decided to swim for Truman State University. Part of her decision was based on the atmosphere there and the people she met.

“The team was just awesome and they were like a family. They all hung out together and they all made it an effort to make the recruits feel welcomed,” Jamie said.

Jamie also picked Truman because it is a Division II school. When she visited Division I schools she often found that either the schools had very large and fast teams where she would be one of the slower swimmers, or the schools had very small teams that usually did not make it to Nationals. From this she found that Truman’s Division II team would be a good fit.

Once she begins to swim for Truman, Jamie has big goals for the next few years.

“Olympic trials are definitely a goal, and I’m not too far off those cuts,” Jamie said. “So that is something that will happen in college, in 2016 hopefully.”