MERCER ISLAND, Wash. — Piper Enge won six individual state titles at Mercer Island High School and helped the Islanders win back-to-back team titles.
Now Enge is setting her sights on Paris.
Enge, 17, is one of the top high school swimmers in the country. Her best event is the 100-meter breaststroke.
"You need to time your glide to the exact moment," Enge said. "You need to make sure your hands are in the right position every single part of your stroke while keeping in mind what your legs are doing and how many strokes you are from the wall like it's such a mental race.
Considering only the top two at the trials from each event make the US team, the mental race begins long before the swimmers are in the pool.
"At the trials it'll end up coming down to who wants it more," Enge said. "You know, there are people throwing up before races, throwing up afterwards. In the ready room you even seen people like turning green because of how nervous they are."
But Enge is in a good spot, thanks to her coach.
"A lot of athletes know that, you can sometimes people end up falling out of love with their sport just because of the coach," Enge said. "And mine was kind of the opposite where Abi helped me fall more in love with the sport."
Abi Liu, the head coach of Bellevue Club swim team, won two national titles in China and won a silver medal in the Asia Games. Now, she's one of the top coaches in the US.
"Piper embraces everything," Liu said. "Piper trusts. Piper believes. Piper is very coachable. Oftentimes, just human nature, we don't like to be told what we are doing wrong. Piper's hungry for that. Tell me what I can do better. What else can I do?"
Last year, the junior national champ became the first Washington high schooler to break the one-minute barrier in the 100 breaststroke.
In 2024 the Texas commit made it to the World Championships final.
Now Enge is focused on the US Olympic swim trials, which will be held at Lucas Oil Stadium from June 15-23.
"I always just try to remind myself like, 'Hey, when they work hard, we work harder,'" Enge said. "The only way to beat them is to work harder than they do."
About 900 of the best swimmers will be in Indianpolis for the trials, but only 52 men and women will make the team.
"So, the probability to make it is about 6% and not making it is 94%," Enge said. "But do you want to be the 6%? Or do you want to be the 94%? You make the choice, and that choice happens every day. It comes it comes down to a fingernail. So that's why you got to put in that work every day because the one day you back off that might be the day that they push harder and they can out-touch you for that."
Enge will not be the only northwest native competing at the trials. Her teammates on the Bellevue Club Swim team Alexa McDevitt, Sophia Sunwood, and Cecilia Howard have also qualified.
Stanford commit Ella Jablonski, Tennesse commit Ben Bricca, Lousiville commit Camden Doane and Hailey Weiler from the Seattle Metropolitan Aquatic Club are headed to the trials too.