Senior Jaidyn Nelson’s life long swim career has led her to a new and exciting frontier. Nelson is proud to be committed to the University of Sioux Falls and to continue her swim career there.

Nelson plans to major in Criminal Justice with a minor in Psychology. She describes that the end goal with her degree would be to apply for the FBI Academy or pursue law school post graduation. Nelson describes her search for colleges as very confusing, she was undecided on just about anything she wanted to do. She initially did not know if she even wanted to go to college, which then turned into wanting to go to college but maybe not wanting to swim. She finally came to the decision to attend college as well as continue her swim career. Nelson recalls starting with the colleges that had reached out to her first, she talked to the coaches of these schools on the phone which led her to tour two universities. Nelson went to the University of Missouri-St. Louis and then to University of Sioux Falls. This journey ultimately led her to a decision, following the first phone call with the Sioux Falls coach, she immediately felt comfortable speaking with him and loved how they got along so well before even meeting. After touring Sioux Falls she loved the people she met there and thought the city was beautiful as well.

Nelson describes ending up somewhere completely unexpected to her. First of all, she never even considered South Dakota as a state she would be interested in. Nelson also talked to eight different schools on the phone, and was planning to visit more until Sioux Falls was the second one she toured and did not feel the need to look any further. Nelson is very excited about her decision and cannot wait to meet new people. The few things that she is not looking forward to as much are the cold weather in South Dakota, and being far from family. Nelson says she is considering getting involved with the honors program in addition to the swim team. 

Nelson describes how different college athletics is going to be than what she is used to, “It is going to be a whole new level of commitment, I will be putting in more work, and it will be different for me that the team will not be coed.” An ideal goal Nelson would like to accomplish within college swim would be to be a conference finalist. She intends to keep appreciating the fun in the sport and further learn about teamwork through this new experience.