Athletic and intelligent, Christian Wester uses both talents to the Jr. National Swimming Championships

MADISON- Christian Wester has seemed to setup his life in a very positive way. The senior at James Clemens High recently signed an athletic scholarship to swim for the University of Delaware where he will make his way through an education earning a degree in Aerospace Engineering from one of the top engineering universities in America. His incredible athletic and academic prowess is one of the best to ever come through Madison as he is ranked the No. 1 high school swimmer in Alabama among the class of 2026 after winning six gold medals, four silvers and one bronze among the Alabama High School Athletic Association’s State Swim and Dive Meet over the past three years.

The super student-athlete has also boosted his stature among the elite swimmers in America as he qualified for the Speedo Winter Junior Nationals set for this week in Indianapolis, Ind. where he will participate in four individual events and four relay races as part of a team from the Huntsville Swim Association.

“My goal is to finish among the top eight in the 200 backstroke, which is my main event and that’s what I’m focusing on,” said Wester. “In the 100 backstroke, I hope to reach the finals, which includes the top 24 swimmers, and just to better my top personal times in 200 and 400 individual medley races.”

The 17-year old only child to John and Maggie Wester moved to Madison three and a half years ago as his father is part of Federal Law Enforcement and his work forced the Wester family to drop anchor nine times among eight states since the young Wester was born. Their landing in Madison came just in time for Wester to enter his freshman year at James Clemens where he immediately joined the Jet’s swim program and soon made his place among the program’s best ever setting five team records in individual events and on two relay squads. He is a three-time Jr. National qualifier and a U.S. Open qualifier and is expected to be named a Scholastic All-American for the fourth consecutive year. In the classroom, Wester carries a 4.92 grade point average and scored a 35 on his ACT.

“I began swimming at age eight as my dad was an elite swimmer in college and he pushed me in some ways to swim, but I really enjoyed the atmosphere centering around swimming. I felt at home. Several of my friends were also swimming and many of those were good and their level of swimming helped push one another,” said Wester.

Attacking the ranks of high school swimming wasn’t always all roses as during his sophomore season he wasn’t feeling good about his swimming talents as he was going through a stressful time and almost stopped diving into the pool, but deep inside his well-sculpted swimmer’s body, he knew swimming would be part of his future and decided to keep-astrokin’.

“I’m more of a distance swimmer as I usually don’t sprint out in a race,” said Wester, of his style of being a competitor swimmer. “I usually catch up with my competition as I feel confident I can catch those ahead of me. I usually have enough energy and stamina to last until the end.”

Away from the crystal clear, blueish waters of the pool, the 6-foot-1, 170-pound Wester works as a server a couple nights a week at Luigi’s Italian Grill. He drives a Ford Explorer, attends Church of the Highland in Madison and his girlfriend is among the James Clemens’ color guard within the school’s marching band.

His mental capacity is endless as the recruiting war to obtain his talents as both an athlete and academically gifted student came from top swimming programs at colleges such as Minnesota, Utah, West Virginia and Yale, but, in many ways, his swimming talents overshadow anything he does in the classroom.

“In the pool I always felt I was better than average and really felt I could be an elite swimmer my freshman year,” added Wester. “I did so as I began practicing more, got more into my weight lifting and improved my swimming techniques through hard work as I mentally locked in.”

His hobbies include outdoors-type activities such as hunting and camping with his father, and he also loves biking, video games and reading a good book.

Now, he will face some of the top-notch swimmers in the country in Indianapolis and get a feel of how well his talents have grown since first jumping into competition at age eight, and prep for his way into the Delaware Fightin’ Blue Hens team, a Div. I program as part of the ASUN Conference.