ATHLETE OF THE WEEK — Cooper Bennett

Junior Cooper Bennett has been swimming competitively at West Ashley High School for the past few years. He has sacrificed a lot of his free time to swim and, so far, it has paid off. “Cooper competed at the State Swim Meet in the 50 free [freestyle] and 100 free individually, and as the anchor of the 200 and 400 free relays,” said head swim coach Bradley Blake. He helped the relay teams to finish 7th and 14th out of the 30 relay teams that competed. Bennett finished 12th in the 100 free and 10th out of 40 competitors in the 50 free. “His effort in the 50 free set a new school record with a time of 22:47,” said Blake.
Bennett used to play baseball, but five years ago he began swimming competitively. It would seem that he was destined to be a great swimmer because he comes from a family of great swimmers. His sister swam competitively for WAHS and his father used to coach the sport. “Swimming is just fun. It doesn’t get boring,” says Bennett. When asked what his favorite event is in swimming Bennett said, “Anything freestyle — it doesn’t matter to me as long as it’s free!”
During practices, Bennett works hard to improve the skills that he has acquired. He says the best advice he was given about swimming is to just work hard. “Work hard because what you do in practice is what you can do in a meet,” he says. Bennett and his teammates practice for 12 hours a week, two hours a day, Monday through Saturday.
One of the secrets to his success is to “just keep swimming.” Bennett recognizes that in order to get better and shave time off his personal bests, he has to practice and keep swimming even when he is tired. Practicing six days a week can definitely be tiring but he knows that it will pay off in the end.
Even in his free time Bennett stays close to water. One of his favorite hobbies is kayaking. He’s also a part of the Robotics Club and Trebuchet Club at WAHS. Recently, Bennett competed with the Robotics Club at the Regional Competition in Beaufort. They won first place and are advancing to the State Competition.
Next year, Bennett plans to continue swimming competitively at WAHS. “Cooper has been a captain for two years and will return as a team leader next year,” said Blake. After Bennett graduates high school, he plans to go to college and major in engineering. Bennett likes to be very hands on with projects, so he believes it will be a good match for him.