Originally from Dover Plains, New York, Jillian Cudney ’20 was a four-year Senior and tri-varsity athlete. She now studies at Tufts University, where she swims freestyle for the Women’s Swimming and Diving team.
Cudney started swimming when she was eight years old and joined a club team when she was ten. “I fell in love with swimming right away,” said Cudney. “I found success pretty quickly, and I made a lot of friends, so it was very encouraging. That is when I knew that I wanted to keep swimming and go as far as I could go.” Coming from New York, Cudney was drawn to Hotchkiss. “Swimming was very important to me, but so was academics,” said Cudney. “What I liked about Hotchkiss is that it allowed me to pursue both swimming and academics.”
During her time at the school, Cudney set school records in both the 50m and 100m freestyle, becoming an All-American in the 50m freestyle. Cudney said, “It was a lot of fun. And then when I started to do well, I was recognized and brought attention to a sport which was not super-popular. By the time I graduated, people were paying more attention to swimming, which was really encouraging.”
Head Coach Michelle Repass said, “Jillian was an incredible student of the sport. She was relentless in her pursuit of technical perfection, which served her particularly well in the high-pressure events of the 50m and 100m free. She actively studied her training and racing to find opportunities to drop even the smallest units of time, which helped her to continue to get faster throughout her four years here.”
When asked about one of her favorite memories, Cudney said, “The first time we won Founders, which was my Upper Mid year, was a blast. We were doing so well, and then in our final relay, we sealed the deal. The whole thing was pretty monumental.”
Coach Repass said, “Before Founders, Jillian came to me and said, ‘I think we can win.’ She spread that energy and excitement to the rest of the team. I know the team wouldn’t have been as successful in reaching their potential without the confidence that Jillian shared with them.”
During her Upper Mid year, Cudney started to talk to colleges about swimming for them. “I went abroad that fall, which is typically the time that most people are visiting schools and meeting with coaches to talk about recruitment,” said Cudney. “I didn’t do any of that until I came back. I started reaching out to them during December of my Upper Mid year.”
Cudney initially set her sights on D1 schools. “During my recruitment process, the college advising office really helped me out. At first, I was certain that I wanted to swim D1. But I also wanted to go to a school that has really strong academics. My college advisor helped me whittle my list down to NESCAC D3 schools as the best fit for me,” she said. “
At first I was not interested in NESCAC schools because many of them are in the middle of nowhere,” said Cudney. “Tufts was not. Then, I met the coaches there, who were awesome, and fell in love with the school. I liked being in Boston, and the team was starting to get good, so it was the right fit at the right time.”
Commenting on Cudney’s decision to go to Tufts, Coach Repass said, “I think Jillian found a great fit in Tufts, which allowed her to prioritize her academics and pursue her goals outside of the classroom while also challenging her in the pool and giving her the training she needed to continue to excel.”
Cudney, who completed her undergraduate degree in chemistry last spring, reflected on her experience at Tufts, saying, “Overall, it’s going very well. College has its own unique challenges in terms of navigating adult life on top of academics and athletics. The same values that I had to develop at Hotchkiss have helped me here—you know, putting your nose to the grindstone and just doing what you need to do for you. Swimming-wise, the team has been a lot of fun and has gotten really good over the past couple of years.”
College swimming has been more challenging for Cudney in a number of ways. She said, “The time commitment is different. We have practice all year round, which is new. You also have to develop a specialty in the pool. At Hotchkiss, I was a freestyler, but in college that specialization is a bit more evident. Training is also different, because the coaches split everyone into different groups by distance and stroke.”
Looking towards her final season swimming at Tufts, Cudney said, “I just want to do a bit better than the year before. During my time here, we’ve won two conference titles. I’d like to win one more before I leave. At nationals, I’d love to place top three in our relays. I think that would be really cool.”
Cudney also does Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) at Tufts for the Air Force. She will be commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Air Force when she graduates. “My post-college goal is to embrace whatever gets thrown at me when I join the Air Force. I feel that both Hotchkiss and Tufts have prepared me well,” said Cudney.
