Savannah Yanez found a home in the water from a young age.
The Paseo Aquatics teenager originally got into the water for safety reasons, but her love for the water immediately blossomed from there.
“I began swimming when I was 5 years old ” Yanez told Swimming World. “I started swimming recreationally in the summer because my parents wanted me to be water safe and learn how to swim.”
A decade later, the place to find Yanez is still the pool.
“I love swimming because I enjoy challenging myself in the water to become stronger and faster,” Yanez said.
The 15-year-old is a breaststroke specialist for Paseo Aquatics, her favorite stroke from early on, though she is working hard to improve her other strokes.
“Breaststroke is my favorite stroke for sure,” she said. Throughout the years, I’ve struggled with the backstroke. My coach, Trevor Hoyt, has taught me great technique and skill to conquer my potential and I know I’ve improved a lot.”
Like all swimmers, Yanez is very goal-oriented, so making her California CIF consideration cut was a huge moment to reach one of those goals.
“The biggest moment of my career is achieving my CIF consideration cut during league finals. I was under a lot of pressure to achieve the times and was excited when I made the cut,” she said. “As a competitor, I had the opportunity to swim in the Summer Age Group (SAGS) event, which I worked hard all year to make the qualifying times.”
Yanez said her favorite event to swim is the 100 breaststroke and she has a top time of 1:12.14 in that event so far in her young career.
But she is far from a breaststroke specialist. Yanez has put together some strong times in several events.
In the 50 freestyle, she has reached 27.32 and has been as fast as 59.95 in the 100 free. Yanez has put together a 1:09.84 100 butterfly and has been 1:11.88 in the 100 backstroke.
And her improvements continue every season, with plenty of time to get to her next goal, and the next goal is even bigger.
“My ultimate goal is to swim for a D-I college,” she said.
That goal requires as much mental strength as it does physical strength. Yanez has excelled on that side of the sport as well, learning what she can from watching the best.
“I enjoy watching Michael Phelps and learning about his strategies and watching all his accomplishments,” she said. “Although I haven’t been a spectator to big events, my goal is to watch the upcoming Olympics in 2028 in person.”
Savannah Yanez Favorites
Swimmer: Micheal Phelps
Event to swim: 100 breaststroke
Event to watch at the Olympics: 200 IM
Training set: I enjoy any warmup training set my swim coach Trevor teaches me, especially the breaststroke
Food: I enjoy eating spaghetti with meat sauce
Drink: Lemonade and Diet Coke
Book: I enjoyed reading the Hunger Games trilogy
Movie: The Hunger Games
TV show: I enjoy watching The Office
Song: Anything by The Smiths
Musical artist: The group, The Smiths
School subject: History
Hobbies: My hobbies outside of swim is any type of Arts & Crafts and reading.
Not trying to be mean but these times are not close to a D1 swimmers times. She is 15 . Her 100s need to be about 10 seconds faster and her 50 free needs to be 4 plus seconds faster.
you must be a joy at parties.
I’m not trying to be mean but the parents and swimmers need to know what is realistic. The recruiting process is stressful and I am hoping her club is helping her with that process. Letting her know about Sectional and Futures time standards.
Let them know about top 16 and 24 conference times that they should be shooting for. How they can find that information.
She has to be at least a Sophomore so this year is crucial for her.
If her club isn’t helping her with this then they are not doing their job.
Maybe that’s when hard work, dedication and perseverance kicks in. The struggle is real but everything is achievable. Encouragement is key.
She has 8 months to drop a huge amount of time. Not in one event but in 3 events. She should be shooting to make the Futures meet by the upcoming summer. That is a huge ask. Not impossible but those are significant drops.