The article below originally appeared in the San Mateo Daily Journal and is being reprinted with permission.

Now in its eighth year, the College of San Mateo women’s swimming program has had some decent teams but never a true individual standout talent.

Until now.

“It’s nice. I’ve finally got myself a superstar,” Bulldogs coach Randy Wright said, referring to freshman sensation Andrea Chan, a Mills High graduate. “And obviously I’m going to gravy-train this and the bandwagon is there for everyone else to jump on. A girl like Andrea goes beyond state qualifying times — she’s a selling point for an entire program (and gets the attention of future recruits).”

Indeed, the 5-foot-4 Chan has already accomplished plenty in a short amount of time. Chan has won every individual event she’s entered this season, with her breakthrough performance coming last weekend at the Solano Invitational, a state-qualifying meet.

Chan set personal-records in both the mile and 100 butterfly. Her time of 18:39.30 in the mile and 59.07 in the fly have met state meet qualifying times for the past 10 years, which means Chan is virtually assured of being the first female in CSM swimming history to compete in the state meet next month.

“My main goal before the season started was to make the state meet and it didn’t matter what event it was, as long as I made it,” Chan said. “So of course I’m pretty excited that I’ll be swimming at state.”

Chan has developed into a swimming machine. Take the Solano Invitational, for instance. In addition to the mile and fly, Chan also swam in two relay events. So basically Chan swam in four events spread out over five hours, an exhausting and grueling day to say the least. The fact that the mile event — that’s 66 laps for those counting — has turned out to be Chan’s best event isn’t lost on the former Mills High standout, who never got the chance to do the event in high school because there is no girls’ mile swim in the Central Coast Section.

“I never thought of myself as a distance swimmer until Randy told me this season that I could qualify for the state meet (in the mile),” Chan said. “I’ve made my body into something built more for distance. It took some getting used to, though. I actually didn’t like it at first because it was just too long.”

But Chan loves the event now. At Solano, Chan smashed her previous best time by a whopping 25 seconds, blowing the competition away in the process.

“The mile race at Solano was boring,” Wright said. “She won it by over a minute and destroyed the field. She won by four lengths of the pool — that’s 100 yards. Andrea is so good she would embarrass a lot of men in her two best events. We love it when the little Asian girl can beat up on all the guys. And I really love the athlete who not only wants to go fast but wants to win. Andrea is a special swimmer.”

At Mills, Chan qualified for CCS in each of her four years. Chan’s best events were the 100 fly and 200 individual medley, and she finished second and third, respectively, in those races at the PAL Meet last year. Chan wasn’t one of the fastest in the section, but everyone on her team could count on her to swim consistently race after race, meet after meet.

In addition to her love and passion for the sport — providing her with the fuel to practice endlessly — the key to Chan’s success lies in her ability to hold her position coming off the wall.

“Andrea is very streamline in her technique and can hold her dolphin kick a lot longer than her competitors,” Wright said.

Wright points to Chan’s narrow one-second victory in the 100 fly at Solano as a showcase in her tremendous talent. Even with the second-place finisher coming off the final turn, Chan took control on the final lap as she held her glide an extra three kicks before emerging out of the water half a body length in front of her closest competitor. Of course, Chan went on to win.

“She is great,” Wright said. “Once she got out in front, it was like ‘Get out of my way, I’m heading to state.’ At the end of the day, for a swimmer, it’s all about their will and dedication. Some got it, some don’t. Andrea has it. If you want to be a great swimmer, you’re doing a lot of laps going back and forth across the pool. That takes a lot of dedication and people can burn out on that.”

Not Chan, who, like the Energizer Bunny, keeps on going. Feeling more confident in her abilities than at any point in her life, Chan literally can’t wait to dive into the pool either for practice or a meet.

Chan feels mentally and physically fresh, yet knows she’s still has a way to go to reach her potential. That’s what drives Chan when she’s feeling tired from a long day in the pool, knowing that her times will drop even further as long as she stays dedicated.

“Knowing there’s still plenty to do keeps my drive going,” she said. “And I really love competition. I know I’m not the best swimmer out there, but I’m always up for a challenge. Right now everything feels good.”