Most Knoch athletes enjoy their time in the offseason while they visualize and lift weights in preparation for their upcoming sports season. For these two Division 1 commits, there’s no such thing.
“I have been swimming competitively for nine years,” said senior Giona Lavorini.
Lavorini is the newest panther cub at the University of Pittsburgh.
Becoming a collegiate swimmer is not for the weak. The Lavorini family has often been jokingly told that both Giona and her brother, Adrian, have grown scales and become mermaids.
“Every weekday, I do around three hours of swimming and one hour of weights or dryland,” she said. “In a week, I swim over 20 miles!”
According to experts known as Google, one “swimming mile” is equivalent to four “running miles.” Let’s do the math; on average, she would be running over 80 miles a week. That sounds like one of those absurdly worded ‘real-world’ examples from math class. The next time I’m told someone has 486 apples, I will be less of a skeptic.
However, there are a few times a year when Lavorini eases on the break, at least a little bit. “I swim pretty much year-round with a few week long breaks here and there. When I get a break, I try to relax as much as possible and I don’t swim or workout!”
In all seriousness, though, Lavorini could not be happier to commit to the University of Pittsburgh. In fact, there was really no other competition.
“As crazy as it may seem, I loved Pitt so much that I never got further into my recruitment process with the other schools I was talking to,” she said.
As she has proved, Lavorini has the stats to back up such a large commitment. Similar to Hudl, Athletic.net, and other platforms, SwimCloud is how swimming and diving recruiters find their diamonds. Impressively, but not at all surprisingly, Giona Lavorini is ranked ninth in the state of Pennsylvania as an all-around swimmer.
Senior Karlee Buterbaugh is eagerly waiting for her first javelin opportunity in the Sun Belt Conference. But, she definitely had a roster.
“Although Marshall was my only official offer, I talked to Princeton, Bucknell, Saint Francis, Northeastern, Navy, Army, Cal U, Pitt, Kent State, and Buffalo,” she said.
Buterbaugh’s motives were multifaceted when it came to her decision. “I was very interested in their medical imaging program and was offered to do track at the next level,” she said in reference to Marshall’s programs.
Everyone has their origin story, but Buterbaugh’s is not one many would guess. “My freshman year, one of my guy friends introduced me to throwing because the throwers got food on Fridays. It ended up being good, so I kept doing it,” she said.
To be fair, I also joined throwing to eat food on Fridays. D1 schools, hit me up!
Like Lavorini, Buterbaugh trains year-round. “Well, basketball and volleyball are often my training over winter and fall. I go to the gym a lot in the summer, and occasionally in the winter,” she said.
If you’re looking to get in the mindset to jump off the deep end and commit to a sport, take Buterbaugh’s words to heart. “It’s tough and nerve wracking, but it all works out in the end.”
