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Warren’s Paige Johnson signs with Gannon University

Time flies, and so does Paige Johnson in a swimming pool.

"Not sure how 18 years has gone by so fast, but she has certainly influenced us, hopefully as much as we have her," said her mother, Kim. "There have been a lot of challenges, especially over the past 18 months that certainly took a toll on sports, school and day-to-day interactions. Watching her overcome those challenges and stay positive has helped influence the whole family and our outlook to take each day at a time."

As much as Paul and Kim Johnson would like to slow time down, Paige is on a fast track to college swimming, committing to Gannon University beginning in the fall.

"Her passion for swimming is really what pushed her to continue to pursue her career at the college level," said Kim. "We just encouraged her to follow her heart and make her choice based on what she really wanted to do. Trying to find a college that had her major of biomedical engineering, was in 'the city,' as well as a swim team that she could be a part of, helped drive her to Gannon. She really clicked with the coaches and teammates as well."

"We are just happy to have her somewhat close to home as the transition will certainly be hard," Kim added. "And, although her sister does not admit it, I am certain it will be a tough transition for her as well."

Seems like yesterday she was blowing bubbles in the YMCA pool to earn her Tadpole badge.

"I think I began to develop my confidence in swimming when I qualified for my first state championships with the YMCA when I was 10," said Paige, a Warren senior. "I think that district meet that qualified me for states was when I finally realized I could compete with anyone at the highest levels.

"I know it seems crazy, but that first trip to states I remember saying to my parents as we wandered around the Penn State campus that this is what I wanted to do one day," she said. "I told them I had college all figured out at 10 years old. I was gonna swim and walk across the street to get ice cream from the creamery and that was it. However, they quickly made me realize I had to actually go to school and not just swim. I began to get serious about swimming in college after my sophomore year. I decided to take a year off from soccer, something I had played since I was very young, to focus on swimming.

"By the time I started to consider schools, I really wanted to find a school that could support my major and I could swim for," said Paige. "I had some small discussions with Bucknell University and Stony Brook University, which are both Division I, but nothing really clicked with those schools and recruiting was tough for them throughout the pandemic. I also had a few conversations with some smaller Division III schools like Penn State Altoona, Behrend and Pitt-Bradford. I had not been looking into Gannon until my mom told me they had really good engineering programs. My high school coaches, Russ and Dee Beyer, had both swam in college at Gannon and their son, Andrew, is a current swimmer there. I asked if they could give me the coach's information and Dee went ahead and emailed the coach herself. Gannon really just clicked for me and I loved the campus and the team.

"Through my high school career I have been a three-sport district medalist, medaling in soccer, track and swimming. In high school, I have earned 11 district medals in swimming. My freshman and sophomore year, I struggled to drop times but, in my junior year, I was able to surpass my best times by multiple seconds. At the end of junior year, however, the YMCA was forced to shut down, giving us swimmers no place to train. We all had to switch over to doing a lot of dryland; what us swimmers call 'workouts outside of the pool.' My high school coaches did everything they could to keep us in shape in the offseason without the pool. That's how I decided to return to play soccer my senior year.

"My time swimming for both the Dolphins and the Dragons has been the best 11 years of my life and I wouldn't change it for the world," added Paige. "Many of my best friends I met and became close with through swimming. Some of them I met when I was 6 or 7 and they're still my best friends that I get to swim with every day. I have also been able to share my passion for swimming with my younger sister, Kirsten, who has also been in the sport since she was 6.

"I have been swimming for so long, so it's hard to pinpoint a few of my favorite memories," said Johnson. "I have to say that each state and district meet with the YMCA was special to me. The relay of Maddie Kramer, Katie Beyer, Sophie Olson and I has been swimming together from when we were 10 until about the end of sophomore year with the Y. I also remember all of us girls dying our hair blue at your house before my first district meet. (Editor's Note: Jordan Sitler's house) One of my most favorite moments was when I won the 200 breaststroke at YMCA districts my freshman year. With high school, I remember playing water polo, our bus rides home from swim meets, begging our coaches for Chick-fil-a, pasta parties and every time I got to stand on the podium with my teammates."

Swimmers are a lot of things and crazy is one of them.

"Swimmers are crazy, you're right," said Johnson. "We get up at 5 in the morning to go to practice and sometimes come back at 6 that night to practice again or compete. It takes a ton of grit, determination and hard work to compete at the high levels. We do all different kinds of workouts from sprint days to distance days and sometimes we get easy drill days, but those are rare. Over the past year or so, I have become fond of the longer distance events over the sprinting events. Through high school, I have swam the longer events such as the 500 freestyle and the 200 IM, but I never remember swimming the 50 free or 100 free."

It's not all about swimming with Paige; there are other aspects of her life.

"At Gannon, I will be studying biomedical engineering," she said. "I plan to focus on the 100 and 200 breaststroke and also swim the 500 and 200 IM as well."

Johnson's last meet was at the District 10 championships over the weekend. She was fourth as part of the 400 freestyle relay and seventh in the 100 breaststroke.

"I have one remaining meet with the YMCA, a state regional meet in York at the end of March in place of the normal state championships due to COVID," she said.

"My greatest influences have to be my parents," said Paige. "My dad has been my biggest supporter since the beginning. He began taking me to the weight room and working out with me when I was young, pushing me to be my best. My sister has also been a great influence and one of my biggest competitor. My coaches have also been great influences of mine. They realized my potential from the beginning and made me work toward it each and every day."