After one more swim season, this spring senior Tom Cavanaugh will hang up his competition swimsuit.After getting into several D3 schools for swimming and looking into D1 schools, Cavanaugh turned down offers to attend Thomas Aquinas College, a liberal arts school in Santa Paula.
Cavanaugh chose Aquinas for its academics, even though the school doesn’t have a pool.
Cavanaugh, who has been swimming all four years of his high school career, will have to give up the sport that he loves. “It is definitely more of a passion than a job,” he said.
His mother, aunt, and uncle were all swimmers for Redwood. “It has always been a part of my life, whether it was for fun or on a team,” Cavanaugh said.
“The thing about swimming is that there is always room for self-improvement…it is kind of addicting, almost,” he said. “Once you get a best time, you’re sort of like ‘Oh, well I kind of want another best time.’”