Get to Know Washington State University Women’s Swimmer, Jade Castro

Name: Jade Castro

Hometown: State College, Pennsylvania

High School: State College Area High School

Sport: Swimming

How She Got Into Swimming: A neighbor of hers growing up was going to participate in summer swimming and convinced her sister to try it. Since her sister was doing it, eventually Jade wanted to give it a chance. Around a decade later, Castro has become one of the best swimmers in recent memory in the state of Pennsylvania and has made it to the NCAA Division I level.

Primary Events: Sprint swimmer specializing in butterfly, freestyle, and backstroke. However, backstroke is her best stroke.

Club Teams: SCAY AquaLions (State College Area YMCA), Nittany Lion Aquatic Club, and Middle Atlantic Zone Team

High School Accolades: 16-time PIAA District 6 medalist, 10-time PIAA medalist, including a gold in the 200-yard medley relay team and a silver in the 100 backstroke as a senior, YMCA National Qualifier, PennLive Girls Swimmer of the Year, Scholastic All-American, team captain, and graduated in the top 10 percent of her high school class.

Current Institution and Program: Washington State University Cougars women’s swimming. Washington State is a public university located in Pullman, Washington and is home to around 32,000 students. Presently, the women’s swimming program competes in the West Coast Conference (WCC) in NCAA Division I. Why She Chose Washington State: “I was ready for something different. Washington State has a women’s swimming program only. Russell Whitaker is my head coach and he’s entering his ninth season and has done an amazing job with the program in his time there. But my truest connection to the program is assistant coach, Austin Pillado. He used to coach at Penn State and I got to know him from that. I love the growth of the program, living in a small town, and also, the education degrees at Washington State are reputable. It all came together.”

Former Institution and Program: Auburn University Tigers College Accolades: Two-time Southeastern Conference (SEC) Academic Honor Roll and qualified for NCAA B Cuts in her freshman season

Major and Future Plans: Early childhood education major with plans to become a teacher and swimming coach in the future.

Overcoming Adversity: While Jade has unquestionably always been an amazing swimmer, she has faced difficulty in understanding that she’s much more than a swimmer and her times don’t define her identity. Despite competing and practicing well, she was unsure who she was outside of being a decorated swimmer and feared disappointing others if she had an off day or didn’t make every decision in her life based on swimming. Making national cuts as just a 14-year old after starting swimming just three seasons earlier mounted after a while. After some time, she decided to seek help in private and shared some of her story through Hope for Athletes and on her own social media platforms. Through therapy and self-discovery, she’s become much more fond of the young woman she is today. She continues to work through her depression diagnosis and balance the best she can being an amazing swimmer, but also not saying no to other opportunities outside of the pool. One of which is becoming a social media intern for Behind the Athlete earlier this spring. Through her own mental health journey, she’s discovered some of her closest friends who she shared teams and relays with in club, high school, and college swimming were also struggling themselves, including some of her closest friends from high school. Now, they all feel comfortable talking more candidly with one another and know how they can be even better friends and supporters to one another as they continue their swimming careers. What State College Means to Her: “It’s home and it’s been amazing to see it evolve and grow as a city. It still does feel small to me and the State College Area School District did an amazing job of placing strong emphasis on athletics and academics. State High gave me a really sound foundation for coming to college. And I also think being surrounded by a bunch of athletes that were on the same level as me, also motivated me to continue to do well.”

Her Support System: A coach who changed her life over the last three years is retired Auburn Swimming assistant coach, Mike Simpson. “If I ever get compared to having the kind of heart he has for others, that would be perhaps the ultimate compliment to me.” Additionally, her teammates from Auburn, Nittany Lion Aquatic Club, and State College High School have all been instrumental in pushing her to become a better swimmer and a more confident young woman.

Athletics Before Swimming: Before becoming a swimmer, Castro was a talented kickboxer and worked her way to blackbelt. What People Should Know About Jade: Though she’s an incredible swimmer, she can be classified as a “humble beast”. She cares so deeply about people she knows and is not afraid to strike up conversations with others. Heading into her third year of college, she’s growing excited about her student-teaching and cannot wait to meet her students and make an impact on their lives and her learners make an impact on her. Simply put, Jade is like so many young women in their 20s who just happen to swim faster than darn near everyone. You can find her at a coffee shop, at the beach, and with her cat. She wants to swim faster, but she doesn’t want to say no to experiences that would make her happy. Accepting that recently has made a positive difference and she hopes will help make her final two years of college swimming even better.