As a young swimmer, Sandra had a slow start. At 2, she was kicked out of swimming lessons for refusing to put her face in the water and for crying. She learned to swim from her dad, who actually could not swim. He was a sinker. Sandra joined the Eden Prairie Fox Jets at age 7 and was not a very good swimmer. This team would swim 10 to a lane, starting from both ends. But once she quit dance competitions and focused more on swimming, she rose to the most improved swimmer by the 8th grade. She surrounded herself with great swimming with numerous high school and USA state championship teams. She excelled in the 200 fly, winning individual state championships and high school All- American honors.

Her college swimming was at the University of Northern Iowa. There she set school records in the 200 fly and all distance freestyles. Sandra started swimming Masters at age 23 and has been a loyal participant of Hopkins Masters swimming in the “five-lane dungeon” of Eisenhower Community Center (former high school). There she finds a variety of workouts, tailored to her speed. But it is the camaraderie, friendship and health that keeps her coming back.

Sandra is a distance swimming phenom, in both the pool and in open water. Either one alone would qualify her for this induction. In the Pool she has amassed 55 USMS; 6 FINA individual Top Ten placements and three 2017 All-American honors. Currently she holds 12 individual State records. Open Water is Sandra's "claim to fame". She holds three USMS All-American titles for Long Distance. She has dominated our local open water races. She is known around the region and nationally as a top open water swimmer, competing in many non-USMS sanctioned swims. For the last number of years, she has had to go out of town, out of state, even out of

the country to find adequate challenges and distances to show her abilities. She swam under 20 bridges around Manhattan Island in 8 hours, 1 minute and 44 seconds. She swam in the 10K professional FINA Marathon Swim in Quebec, Canada. Probably most impressive has been her three years of winning the 36-mile END-WET event down the Red River in North Dakota by more than an hour each time, against both men and women.

Sandra currently serves on as the MN Masters Open Water Safety Coordinator. As a 35 year old, Sandra will be the youngest person in the MN Masters Hall of Fame. She is one of the quietest and modest swimmers we know. But in watching her, we can learn how to be a great distance swimmer. Be very interested in the sport, work hard at every practice and swims at least 1500 miles per year.