Chelsea swim and dive team’s Alexis Nelson takes a quick breath after finishing her race and then looks up at the time clock for her time. She has taken first place but hits the water in disgust because she missed a school record by only seconds. A record she set her freshman year and set again and still holds. But she is only upset because she knows she can do better because she has always been driven to be the best at whatever she does.
It seems like Alexis, or Al as she is known to her friends and family, has been swimming since the day she was born. She lives on a lake and as a young girl, her Aunt Cheryl nicknamed her Alacudda after the fish the barracuda. She has been competitively swimming since she was 7 years old. Her first ever record was broken at a Chelsea Aquatic Club (CAC) championship meet (9&10 medley relay) and she broke the 50 Short Course Yards (SCY) backstroke record for CAC. Since the start of her high school career, she has broken the 50 SCY freestyle school record both in the fall of 2016 and fall of 2017, her freshman and sophomore years. She has also broken some relay records like the 400 SCY free relay record along with her teammates Bella Turner, Olivia Olk, and Olivia Prodin.
As Alexis enters her senior season there are many big changes for the Chelsea swim team. Long-time coach Dave Jolly has left and taken a job at Hope college. She has been swimming under Coach Jolly ever since he did summers at CAC. and has swum under Jolly for all three years of her high school career. She knows things will be different this year without him. The team has a lot more Tri Meets (a meet against 2 other high schools including Chelsea) and a majority of the meets are away from the Beach Middle School pool the Bulldogs call home. In fact, the team only has 4 home meets until hosting the Southeast Conference (SEC) championships on November 9th.
“I’m sad to see Coach Jolly leave, but I know he will do great things over at Hope College,” Alexis stated. “I believe that our new head coach Andrew Thomson will never replace Jolly’s legacy here in Chelsea, but he sure will create one of his own.”
This past Summer she has trained at Travis Pointe Country Club under Sammy Richart. she also took on diving to try something fun for herself for the first time ever. She has also been working hard in the weight room. And although it’s her least favorite thing about swimming and that’s getting up at 5:30 in the morning and hopping into a freezing cold pool, she knows the hard work and determination will pay off for her.
“The sport of swimming is very time consuming, but if you have great teammates, it makes it all worth it,” Alexis said.
Her favorite event is definitely the 50 SCY freestyle which she enjoys because it’s quick, and she has to do so many things correctly in the race or else she won’t get the time she wants. She has set up some very lofty goals for her final high school season and they are to win the White division SEC meet and beat Chelsea’s biggest rival Dexter! Another goal she has set would be to finally take down Kara Stiles’s 100 SCY freestyle record from 17 years ago and for one of their relays to get top 4 in the state and as a whole team.
As she enters her last season she looks to create great future memories as well as build on the past ones. Her favorite memory of swimming so far would be the time my friend and teammate Bella Turner and she went down to Indianapolis, IN. for the big Mega Zone meet. There were 16 other states/zones there and they had the time of their lives. They went together and swam under Team Michigan which the coaches were from other club teams around the state.
Although she has received many offers and recognition from colleges from all over, Alexis has not settled on where she plans to compete at the next level yet. But she will definitely be competing.
Her advice to future swimmers is to definitely Trust the process!” Alexis exclaimed. “Even though practices may get hard and the weight room workouts are too much to bear, and your muscles just ache, push through! Because In the end either at our SEC conference meet or D3 State meet the results will show. ”
Alexis is the daughter of Mark and Meredith Nelson. She has two younger siblings, Amelia and Jordan and a new puppy named Winnie.
Alexis & Coach Dave Jolly 
Alexis being her happy go lucky self