Based on many of his experiences, La Jolla High School senior Will Quesnell might be the last person one would expect to compete for a swimming title.
But this year, Quesnell was a top seed in the CIF San Diego Section boys swimming championships and was runner-up as an individual to cap four years of hard work and dedication that by his own ission had a rough start.
During his freshman year, Quesnell was encouraged to try out for water polo, but he hadn’t practiced swimming since he was a young child.
“I did a year of swimming when I was like 5 or 6 but hadn’t done anything in between,” he said. “So during tryouts, I got onto the pool deck and … I thought I was making a mistake and really didn’t know how to swim. The coach [Tom Atwell] had the lifeguard over my lane and he would call out instructions like ‘10 100s’ and I didn’t know what that meant. I was just trying to get from one end of the pool to the other.”
Nevertheless, Quesnell made the team and started to build his skills. And like many water polo players, he also looked to compete in swimming during the offseason to keep in shape.
However, during swimming tryouts that freshman year, Quesnell thought he was “the worst.”
“I didn’t know how to swim quickly, and everyone else was so fast,” he said.
But again, he made the team and spent the season getting faster and more efficient in the water.
Then one day, Quesnell said, something clicked and “I started to swim fast.”
Soon, his time at a meet was cut nearly in half. “The moment it happened, I knew something was different. It felt good,” he said.
From there, he steadily started taking seconds off his time. Quesnell made it to the CIF tournament in his freshman year but didn’t place.
The next year, Quesnell said, he could feel he was swimming faster, and he worked with upperclassmen to train.
“They mentored me, and I’m very grateful for that,” he said. “I went back to grinding at the pool any time I could. I would practice before and after school and during lunch. Any free time, I spent toward getting faster.”
But that came to a screeching halt during a winter ski trip with his family when Quesnell suffered a compression fracture of a vertebra in his back and a break in the bottom right loop of his hip.
He was unable to even get in a pool for two months.
“That was really hard for me mentally,” he said. “These guys I was competing against were going to get ahead of me. Yes, there was the physical challenge, but the mental challenge was the worst. I was pretty depressed.”
When he had healed enough, Quesnell walked laps on the high school track. One day he walked 12 miles, but “everything hurt after that, so I knew I needed to get back into the water,” he said.
In his first time back in the pool, he said, “I was tearing up in my goggles because I felt so weak.”
But little by little, he started to get his strength and speed back.
“I decided I wasn’t going to take it,” he said. “So I got in the pool even more. … I would wake up, swim, eat something, school, swim, eat something, swim, then home. It was not a super fun time in my life, but it was necessary to get here.”
Though he didn’t have a great season his junior year, by the time the CIF meet came around, Quesnell was ready to compete and even outperformed some of his teammates.
By his senior year, Quesnell was back to his routine. And this month, he was seeded No. 1 in the Division II 50-yard freestyle at CIF and won in the preliminaries before being edged in the finals by 0.05 seconds.
But he’s proud to have made it that far.
“I was the only one who had a broken back and came back to compete in finals,” he said. “I stuck with it and made it back.”
He urges other student-athletes to stick with their sports even when challenges arise.
“Even if you miss your first shot, you can stick with it,” he said. “If you believe in it, don’t quit.”
La Jolla Athlete of the Week features athletes from all sports in high school (La Jolla High, The Bishop’s School, La Jolla Country Day School) and other local youth sports. We’re looking not only for the stars of competition but also for student-athletes who set an example for teamwork, academic achievement and/or community involvement. Please email your nominations, and a way to reach your nominees, to Editor Rob Vardon at [email protected]. ◆
