It takes a lot of courage to pack up and travel 4,977 miles to a foreign country for your junior year of high school.

Neza Grilc, junior, came to U. City this year as a foreign exchange student from Slovenia and is close to earning a spot at the state swim meet in St. Charles at the St. Peters Rec-Plex.

Because of her times, Grilc has been considered for state in the 100-meter breaststroke, and her race time for the 500-meter freestyle is also very close to a state qualifying time.
These recognitions have not gone unnoticed by her peers, teammates or swim coach.

In her first year as head swim coach, Laryn Brown has focused on instilling unity within the team and technique in her swimmers.
Brown said Grilc embodies their team’s goals perfectly and is a silent leader to all of her teammates.

“Even though Neza may not like the attention, she does bring a level of competitiveness to the team and encourages everybody without even saying anything,” said Brown.

Neza’s teammates could not agree more with their coach. Marley Gardner, freshman, enjoys having a role model to look up to in the sport.

“It’s important to have upperclassmen on any team to teach us the ropes and what we can do to do better,” said Gardner. “It’s super nice to have Neza on the team this year because she is such a great swimmer and she also does a really good job of helping everyone do their best and is always making us laugh.”

Grilc is both proud and humble about her accomplishments. Grilc said she now doesn’t try very hard in her 500 race because she is scared to go to state.

“I just swim for fun, I like being able to be with my friends after school and I do enjoy the swim meets, but I get very nervous before races so state would be very scary.”