Savanna Townsend is a leader — just ask any of her swimming teammates or coaches.

Her teammates even voted her a captain as a junior, something rarely done on the ISU swimming and diving team.

With the responsibilities of a student as a marketing major and the demands of an athlete, Townsend is also on the executive board of the Student Activities Committee. On the board, Townsend and the other members organize events such as Soles for Souls and the upcoming ISU After Dark on Friday.

But for the swim team, the captain recently helped clinch last week’s victory against Omaha in the 100-yard butterfly, the 100-yard freestyle and on the 200-yard freestyle relay team.

With so much going on, the junior marketing major said she still finds time to have it all.

“It kind of forces you to be successful in and out of the pool,” Townsend said. “You have to balance your academics as well as your athletics and keep a healthy lifestyle.”

Townsend has been on the team for two years and has racked up quite a few honors. She was named to the All-Big 12 Second Team in the 200-freestyle relay in 2014 and 2015 and Cyclone Relay Swimmer of the Year two years in a row.

Townsend’s hard work has not gone unnoticed by her coaches and teammates alike.

“She’ll go the extra little bit, she’ll finish to the wall really hard on every race or anything we’re doing in practice,” said sophomore Laura Miksch, who described Townsend as a big sister to her. “She’ll run all the way to the end, when some people take little short cuts. She’s a really good captain.”

Townsend’s swimming career didn’t originate at Iowa State. Townsend, a Sturgeon Bay, Wisc., native first started swimming when she was 5 years old and fell in love immediately.

But it wasn’t her love for the pool that got Townsend into the sport — it was her sister.

“I started swimming because my sister was shy when she was younger, and so my parents thought it’d be a good idea to put her in a sport where she’d kind of get to break out of her shell,” Townsend said. “I’m two years younger [than her] and was jealous of her getting timed and everything. I think my parents decided to encourage me to join so I could break out of my shell as well just to get a competitive edge.”

In the two years that ISU coach Duane Sorenson has worked with Townsend, he said he has seen a lot of potential in her. 

And more recently, Sorenson has seen Townsend transform into more of a leader.

“Savanna is very much a leader by example,” Sorenson said. “She’s very quiet and reserved and she’s learning to use her voice a little bit more. She’s very well respected by her teammates, which is why she was voted as captain.”

Townsend’s passion for the team isn’t lost with all of her other activities, either. Even when she is asked about her swimming career, she still cares about her team.

The team will take to the pool Friday against Texas Christian and South Dakota at home.