Source: MaxPreps
Author: Greg Bates
Fall is always the craziest time of the year for junior Katherine Hutter.
A. She's competing on the Mercy (Farmington, Hills, Mich.) swim and diving team.
B. She’s aiming to get to the state championships for the third time in three years.
C. She’s trying to keep her grade point average flawless — she’s never earned anything less than an A in high school.
D. She’s volunteering at a local food bank – helping out those who are less fortunate.
"In the midst of chaos and girl drama and all the other stuff is she never loses the focus of her goal, which is to maintain her 4.0, do what she needs to do to get into the college that she wants to go to," said her mom, Michelle.
It's go, go, go nearly all day, every day. It's Hutter desire and drive that make her special, and those traits helped her earn Semper Fidelis Athlete of the Month, presented by the Marines.
"Her heart is just huge."
She'll have the opportunity to attend the Battles Won Academy in Washington, D.C. this summer.
Mercy girls' swimming coach Mike Venos has worked with a lot of athletes in his 35 years as a swimming coach, but Hutter is a rarity.
"As an athlete, she's just one of those kids that just doesn't stop," Venos said. "She has got a motor in her that goes all the time. She would be that really annoying person on the basketball court that you don't want to play against because you know they never get tired. That's the only thing I can really compare her to."
Since Hutter has so much energy, it's pretty apt that she loves the longest race in competitive swimming. The 500-yard freestyle has become Hutter's bread-and-butter event.
"I like distance events because when you're swimming them you kind of just get a pace and you stick with it," Hutter said. “With the sprints, it's more like, one little issue, one bad turn can mess up a whole race. But with the 500, it's more like it's up to you and little mistakes don't matter as much."
Having a threshold to be able to keep going in the long race spurs Hutter on.
"She was blessed with some distance genes, but you need the mental aspect to go with it," Venos said. "You have to have the mental capacity to be able to go longer than everybody else, to be in practice when everybody else is finished. It really does take a certain mindset and it doesn't matter how physically blessed you may be. If you don't have the mindset that goes with it, you're not going to make it."
Hutter has become one of the top distance swimmers at the Division 1 level in Michigan. For the third consecutive year, Hutter competed at the state championships in the 500. On Nov. 17, she placed 17th in 5 minutes, 7.53 seconds. Her previous two seasons, Hutter came in 17th (5:08.16) as a freshman and 14th (5:06.65) as a sophomore.
Hutter also competed in the 100-yard butterfly at state for the third straight year. She came in 20th (1:00.14) as a freshman and 18th (58.50) last season. This year, Hutter dropped her place (14th) and time (58.27).
Swimming the 500 freestyle and 100 butterfly is an interesting combination of one distance race and one sprint event. Because the races are almost back-to-back during a meet, Venos has never had a swimmer take on that double. But Hutter excels at.
Now that the high school swimming season has wrapped, Hutter will concentrate on her favorite for the club team Birmingham Blue Dolphins. She'll compete with that squad up until her senior season of high school gets underway next August.
"To be a swimmer year-round and to be a student is a huge challenge because part of the year they have two practices a day," Michelle Hutter said. "Alot of times that involves getting up at 5 in the morning and going to practice, going to school all day and then practicing again then coming home, eating and doing your homework. During the intense parts of the season, you have to be focused. It's kind of what her M.O. is."
Life will slow down a little bit now for Hutter. However, she's still partakes in plenty of activities.
Hutter takes pride in still holding a perfect 4.0 GPA in high school. Her mom is impressed by how hard she works inside and outside of school.
"She is extremely dedicated to keeping up with her schoolwork and never letting herself get behind whether it's reading or preparing for a test or working on a project," Michelle Hutter said. "It's amazing to me that she does keep a 4.0, and Mercy's probably one of the most challenging high schools in the state as far as how they push them."
Hutter is hoping her exemplary work in the classroom will be beneficial in her getting into a great college. She isn't quite sure what kind of career path she may pursue, but the medical field is a viable option. Her sister, Megan, is a freshman at West Point, a school that interests Hutter.
In school, Hutter is involved with Spanish Honor Society and Animal Rights Club, and will soon be joining National Honor Society.
Through the Spanish Honor Society, Hutter is able to do volunteer work. But it's away from school where she takes advantage of more opportunities to help others.
Hutter has dedicated her time to a couple of local food banks: Gleaners Community Food Bank and Yad Ezra. Through Gleaners, she helps less fortunate members of the community who are in need of food with shopping at the food bank, picking out items and bagging them.
"That's probably my favorite stuff to do," Hutter said. "It's just really fun handing out the stuff to them and meeting all these different kinds of people and hearing their stories."
With Christmas right around the corner, Hutter is planning on being a bell ringer for the Salvation Army.
By the time she graduates in 2020, she is shooting to have 40 hours logged of community service.
"At the Catholic school, the kids are required to do a certain number of hours, and Katherine always goes beyond that," Venos said. "She'll find things to do on her own. Her heart is just huge."