Hayley Smith sets goals for herself that may seem, in her own words, insane and nearly impossible to achieve. But then the Citrus Valley High senior swimmer often manages to achieve those goals, which even surprises herself.
Citrus Valley’s Hayley Smith competes in the Division 2, 100 yard breaststroke consolation final during the CIF Southern Section swimming championships at the Marguerite Aquatics Complex in Mission Viejo on Friday, May 6, 2022. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Contributing Photographer)
Citrus Valley’s Hayley Smith competes in the Division 2, 500 yard freestyle final during the CIF Southern Section swimming championships at the Marguerite Aquatics Complex in Mission Viejo on Friday, May 6, 2022. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Contributing Photographer)
Citrus Valley’s Hayley Smith competes in the D2 200 hundred yard IM during the CIF Southern Section swimming championships at Riverside City College in Riverside on Friday, May. 5, 2023. (Photo by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)
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“When I went into Citrus Valley as a freshman, I looked at the record board and thought I could never be there,” Smith said. “That seemed like an insane goal at the time.”
Now, with her senior season in its final weeks, Smith is the name on that record board as the holder of almost all of Citrus Valley’s girls swimming records. She is an All-American by virtue of the fact that she ranked among the top 100 high school female swimmers in the 500-yard freestyle last season.
In the classroom, she persevered through a rough early start to her high school years to achieve a 4.1 GPA last semester, which, for the first time, landed her name on the principal’s honor roll.
Smith, 18, who has signed a letter of intent to attend Utah this fall, holds school records in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:05.22), 200 freestyle (1:54.23), 500 freestyle (4:54.98), and 200 individual medley (2:05.51).
In addition, she anchored the 200 freestyle relay record of 1:43.04 in 2022 and the 400 freestyle relay record of 3:42.19, also in 2022.
Three of the school records Smith does not hold are the 50 and 100 freestyles and the 100 butterfly. Those records were set by Kailee Mora, who swam for Loyola Marymount after graduating from Citrus Valley in 2013.
“I love swimming so much because there’s always an opportunity to improve,” Smith said. “There are always more goals.”
Smith’s freshman year was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, and she didn’t attend in-person classes much of that year. As a result, she struggled with academics in her sophom*ore year. But, as she gained comfort in high school and developed a balance between schoolwork and swimming, she found success in both areas.
Smith logs 18 hours of practice each week, and, in addition to her high school team, she swims for the Riverside Aquatics Association club team.
“It took some time to learn how to balance swimming and academics,” she said.
As a junior last spring, Smith placed second in the 500 freestyle and sixth in the 200 individual medley at the CIF Southern Section’s Division 2 finals. This spring’s CIF-SS championships are coming up in early May at Mt. San Antonio College.
Smith had an opportunity at the recent Blackhawk Invitational to improve on the records she holds and challenge those held by Mora.
In swimming, a record can be set if a swimmer leads off a relay event. But, as Citrus Valley coach Jesse O’Donnell said, Smith instead elected to swim the anchor legs of the two relays, giving the Blackhawks’ team a stronger opportunity to score more points. Smith did lower her 200 freestyle record in that meet.
“There were some fast teams at the meet,” said O’Donnell.
“She will get a crack at those records.”
O’Donnell is a math teacher who has been coaching at Citrus Valley since the school opened in 2008. He also coached the East Highland Ranch Dolphins club team based in Highland. Smith has been familiar with him since she was a youth.
Smith tried gymnastics when she was younger but found she loved swimming more. She participated in swimming during open sessions at the pool. But the pool would close to the open swimmers to make way for the club practice. Smith wanted to be good enough to be a member of that club.
“Even when she was 7, she would always have a lot of questions and ask about technique,” O’Donnell recalled.
After her breakout junior year, Smith garnered attention from college coaches, including coaches at Utah. One coach pulled her aside and asked to speak specifically to her, describing the Utes’ program in detail.
Smith subsequently took an official visit to Salt Lake City and immediately knew it was the right place for her. She loved the campus as much as swimming … well, almost. She said she plans to study kinesiology with the goal of becoming an athletic trainer.
For now, the focus for Smith and O’Donnell is to win the Citrus Belt League title. The Blackhawks won the league championship when Smith was a sophom*ore, but Yucaipa took the crown last year.
O’Donnell said in addition to being an outstanding performer, Smith is an excellent leader and always has words of encouragement for her teammates.
“I know people can get discouraged and there can be hard times when you face strong opponents,” Smith said. “What you do in one race doesn’t define you as a swimmer or a person. A lot of people don’t understand that how you react the next time is important.”
