Culver’s Lute signs with Albion for swimming

Culver’s Lute signs with Albion for swimming

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

Culver senior Hayden Lute signs with Albion College to continue her swimming and academic careers. From left – Julie Lute, Hayden’s mother; Hayden; Isabel Lute, Hayden’s sister; Alex Lute, Hayden’s father.

CULVER — Culver senior Hayden Lute has always had to travel to pursue her passion for swimming.

For club, she always made the 20-minute drive each way to swim with the Rochester Royals. At Culver, she had to travel in the morning to Plymouth for three years – think 5 a.m. wake-up call – to swim.

This year, the team travels to Culver Academy for practice, but they have to wait until the home team is done practicing, so they do not get to start practice until 6 p.m.

Starting next year, she will be making her longest trip yet to swim after she signed with Albion College, an NCAA Division III school located in Albion, Mich., to continue her athletic and academic careers.

“I chose Albion because I love the environment, I really clicked with the coaches and the team as a whole, and I just really liked the feel of the town and just everything about it,” Lute said.

She was asked to describe the recruiting process. She said that growing up that this was the most important decision she has made on her own. She praised Albion coach Eric Murray. Murray found about Lute through www.swimcloud.com, a database for swimmers and their times in particular events.

“In the process, it gets a little stressful,” Lute said. “Trying to decide where you’re going to go is not easy for anyone. To be able to have that opportunity at my hands is a little more stressful. When you grow up, your parents decide these things. But I got to choose, and luckily, coach Murray made it an easy process. He was in contact with me a lot, and he just made me really feel comfortable.”

Lute said she has always loved swimming.

“I’ve always been around the water,” Lute said. “We have a lakehouse, and so I’ve always been on the water. And so it was natural for me to become a swimmer.”

Lute specializes in the 200 and 500 freestyle. She was fourth in the 200 free and third in the 500 free at last year’s Warsaw sectional.

She is one of only two girls on Culver’s team. (Mallory Rinker, a junior at South Central (Union Mills), also practices with the Cavaliers.)

She counts former Rochester Royals coach Chris Beall among the coaches who impacted her career and said Beall’s daughter Makenna, a former two-time state qualifier from Rochester in the distance events who now swims at Indiana Wesleyan, as someone she looked up to.

Lute also calls Marla White, a current Royals coach whom she has known since she was 10, and current Culver coach Eric Martin as impactful.

Lute said White made her swim “everything.”

“There’s only one event that I’ve never swam,” Lute said. “It’s the 400 IM (individual medley). Don’t tell Marla though.”

Lute also plays volleyball in the fall, and she plays second base for the softball team in the spring. She said playing other sports helps her in swimming.

“That’s a lot of upper body strength in those sports as well as swimming, so being in the weight room through those sports and being active has helped me stay in condition for swim season and has helped me build my muscle. Because you use your muscles in different ways in every sport, so it’s really helped me build all of my muscle and just be a really well-rounded athlete.”

Lute said she wants to major in elementary education. She said she wants to be a special education teacher. She said she would be a sixth generation teacher in her family.

“I want to help other people,” Lute said. “I’ve grown up around teachers. This year, working in the special education room, I have really felt like how I can make an impact on others by being a teacher. You need teachers. AI can’t do everything.”