Skyline swimmer Andie Taylor is reaching for greatness

At 6 a.m. on many mornings, Andie Taylor is in an outdoor pool training with a group of Skyline High School teammates on the Sammamish Plateau.

Ten hours later, she is in the pool at the King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way with veterans of the Olympic trials, Olympic Games or other national and international events. She trains under Sean Hutchison, the assistant U.S. Olympic team coach who heads the King Aquatic Club.

So goes the schedule for Taylor, an elite swimmer who wants the fun and camaraderie of high-school swimming while still seeking to train and compete at an international-class level.

The talented junior, who turns 17 next month, competed in seven events in the U.S. Olympic trials this summer. She didn't make it to Beijing, but later she finished third in the U.S. national championships in the 400-meter individual medley.

"I would be better at the IM if my breastroke was better," she admitted, which is not an uncommon statement among swimmers. The breaststroke is the odd duck of the four major swimming strokes. She excels at the other three (freestyle, backstroke and butterfly), so much that she said she couldn't identify her best stroke.

Many elite swimmers don't bother with high-school swimming, but this is Taylor's third year of it.

"It's a way to be more involved and hang out with the kids from school more because I don't get to do much with them," Taylor said. "I already spend so much time away from school because of swimming that this is a way to be involved in the school."

She added: "It's a short season, so it's fun to do for a little while and once it's over, it's all about club again."

Another appeal of prep swimming is the loud and well-attended state championship meet. The state meet has many times the audience energy of club meets because its spectators are passionate about teams and schools.

The state meet is where Taylor won the 200- and 500-yard freestyle Class 3A titles the past two years, and where she will shoot for Class 4A titles this year because Skyline's enrollment has grown.

Last year, Taylor broke an 18-year-old state record at the Sea-King District meet when she won the 200-yard freestyle in 1 minute, 48.51 seconds.

Skyline coach Susie Miller describes Taylor as possessing an "inner drive" while remaining "very down-to-earth."

"She's very humble and doesn't like the spotlight," Miller said. Teammates apparently have to pry stories of the Olympic trials and other big meets out of Taylor because she doesn't voluntarily talk about them for fear of appearing snooty.

Taylor, who is 5 feet 9, 131 pounds, is a 4.0 student with aspirations of someday going into medicine. She wants to swim in college and should have her pick of schools. The recruiting derby will begin in earnest in the summer.

This semester, Andie (short for Andrea) is taking international baccalaureate classes in calculus, American studies, English and biology. She also has a Spanish class.

She earned some high-school credits before entering high school, gets a PE waiver for elite swimming and plans to take some courses via Internet to save time.

The academic load is heavy and on some days one of her parents, David or Bev, drives her to and from Federal Way so she can study on the 50-minute trip. King Aquatic holds practices seven days a week and some workouts last more than three hours.

Taylor's life is a treadmill of swimming and schoolwork. However, the view should be good if, as expected, she again is atop victory stand at the state meet in November wearing Skyline green.