The Sojourn’s Athlete of the Week, presented by Amplify Media, is Elijah Brown from the Indiana Wesleyan Men’s Swim team.
Brown is a sophomore from Spring, Texas. He attended Concordia Lutheran High School in Tomball, Texas.
“My freshman year was the first point I started taking club and high school meets seriously,” Brown said. “That’s when I stopped doing all the other sports I was involved in: cross country, track, and basketball.”
Brown made the drive up from Texas for a recruiting visit and through the encouragement of his mom, filled out the forms necessary to swim at the next level.
“I was like, ‘I don’t want to do this, I don’t want to swim,’” Brown said.
The program’s newness was appealing to Brown at the time, as the campus didn’t have a men’s swim team until the 2021-22 school year.
“It was really informal, and I feel like it was more personal that way,” Brown said.
In his short time at IWU, Brown has been a part of 13 program records and has had three first-place finishes.
“Elijah has thrown his trust to the program and put his sights on what he can control in his swims,” Wildcats’ head swim coach Stephen Wolcott said. “In doing so, he has gained a better understanding of how he best moves through the water leading to multiple personal bests and program records throughout his time with the team.”
Brown not only sets the standard in the pool but outside of it as well, serving as the team’s captain.
“Elijah was a big part of my transition here,” freshman teammate Hudson Vonk said. “He is a role model and tries to live what he preaches in our small groups.”
The Wildcats are gearing up for the Mid-South Conference Championships, which will take place in Danville, Kentucky, February 6-8, while those who qualify will head to the NAIA National Championships, which will be held in Elkhart, Indiana, about a month later, March 5-8.
