Becky Phillips ‘23 has done almost every sport imaginable throughout her life. When she was young, she played softball, basketball, volleyball, badminton, soccer, and tennis, but has since focused on track and swimming in her high school career. 

“I just love it,” Phillips said. “I’ve always loved sports a ton.”

As a sophomore, Phillips competed on the state team for track and field, running the 4×100 meter and 4×400 meter relays. This season, she has continued to be an asset to the team, head coach Greg Frandsen said. She recently ran a personal best time of 1:00.85 in the 400 meter race in the North Central College Cardinal Indoor Classic on March 3. 

“She can do so many different events for us, which is really exciting,” Frandsen said. “She can run anywhere from 100 to 800 meters, and I think she could help us in any of those areas. So it’s a matter of trying to figure out where we need to use her and where she can help the team the most, but I think she’s got so much potential.”

In addition to running track and swimming for Lyons Aquatics swim club year-round, Phillips also swims for the LT team. As a junior in the 2021 season, she competed for the state team for LT in the 200 and 400 freestyle relay races. Head varsity girls swim coach Scott Walker said that Phillips’ talent was obvious from the beginning.

“I would say a big part of her talent is her work ethic, commitment, dedication, and pure enjoyment of the sport,” Walker said. “When you [have] those kinds of characteristics, you know you have somebody special.”

As a teammate, Phillips is supportive and exhibits leadership during warmups and workouts, track teammate Emma Kwak ‘23 said. 

“Becky is an amazing teammate and athlete,” Kwak said. “I could go on and on about how unbelievably impressive she is. She always pushes her teammates to do our best and makes us all want to be better. She is one of the most athletic and dedicated girls I have ever met.”

Frandsen also attests to Phillips prowess as an athlete, as he has watched her confidence and ability grow since freshman year, he said.

“Sophomore year her competitive level really took off,” Frandsen said. “Even with a shortened season, the gains and the strides she made in such a short period of time were pretty dramatic, and she knew she was someone we could count on to perform when it counted.”

Phillips plans on playing a sport in college, but has not yet decided whether it will be swimming or track. For her remaining swim and track seasons in high school, she hopes to be on the state teams again and also have fun as it could be her last year in the sport, she said. 

With swimming, there can be a part of the season that becomes monotonous and draining for many of the swimmers, but Phillips has the unique ability to go with the flow and persist, Walker said.

“Becky has a very even keel with her emotions,” Walker said. “She just puts her nose to the grindstone and continues to march forward and her teammates follow that lead.” 

A big part of Phillips’ motivation to continue being so involved in sports comes from the support from her team, she said. 

“The team helps with [staying motivated],” Phillips said. “I run and I swim for my team, it’s not just me running and swimming on my own, so that makes it more fun.”