Savannah Skow, a junior from Centennial High School, has been making waves in the world of competitive swimming. Over the course of her swim career, Savannah has set eight new state records for swimming in New Mexico. Now, she is setting her sights on attending college at Princeton University to swim for the Tigers.
While she has been swimming her whole life, Savannah started swimming competitively when she was eight years old living in Virginia. She continued swimming on different club teams as her family moved around the country. In 2018, Savannah’s family made their way to the southwest after her mother Jeanette retired from the military. Since then, Las Cruces has been home for Savannah and her family.
Savannah is engaged in Advanced Educational Services (AES) at Centennial High School. While she finds solace in the water, she remains focused on her studies maintaining a 4.1032 GPA. Savannah is a member of the National Honor Society, MESA, and the Bella Voce varsity choir.
She currently swims for the Las Cruces Aquatic Team, and was named to the 2022-2023 USA Swimming Scholastic All-America Team. USA Swimming is the national governing body for the sport of swimming in the United States.
Each year, USA Swimming recognizes its athlete members who excel both in the classroom and in the pool. To achieve USA Swimming Scholastic All-America status, the swimmer must have completed 9th, 10th, 11th, or 12th grade with at least a 3.5 grade point average for the entire academic year. Additionally, the swimmer must have swam an individual pool time equal to or faster than the 2022 Winter Junior National qualifying time in at least one event.
Savannah completed the 2022-2023 academic year with a 4.0688-weighted grade point average. She also achieved the 2022 Winter Junior National qualifying time standard in five events: the 100, 200, and 500-yard freestyle, 100-meter butterfly, and 200-meter individual medley. She is one of only four swimmers in New Mexico to be named to the 1,135 member 2023 Scholastic All-America Team, and the first female in Las Cruces since 2015 to earn the honors.
“Teamwork is really important,” Skow said. “Even though swimming is an individual sport, it’s also a team sport, and being able to push each other, work towards a goal together, and hold each other accountable is really important for having a good team environment.”
She had a standout 2022-2023 swim year competing for LCAT under Head Coach David Maker. She broke eight New Mexico Swimming state records for the 15-16 girls age group (100-yard freestyle, 200 yard and 200-meter freestyle, 50-meter butterfly, 100 yard and 100-meter butterfly, 100-yard individual medley, and 200-meter individual medley). She culminated an outstanding season with some dominating performances at the Western Zone Seniors Championships in Clovis, California in July. Out of over 700 swimmers, she was the only athlete to make the championship “A” final in all seven entered events and walked away with the Women’s High Point Award.
She continues to train a rigorous schedule with LCAT. In December, she competed at the USA Swimming Winter Junior National Championships held in Westmont, Illinois. She aspires to continue her pursuit of academic and athletic excellence at the NCAA Division I collegiate level.
Savannah is currently ranked by SwimCloud in the top 100 of female swimmers in the Class of 2025 in the United States. She’s been recognized by the national governing body USA Swimming for her outstanding achievements in the classroom and in the pool, and was featured in two national swim news magazines, SwimSwam and Swimming World Magazine.
Looking ahead, Savannah has verbally committed to the admissions process at Princeton University where her mother swam and attended college.*If accepted, Savannah plans to study aerospace engineering while competing in the water as a Princeton Tiger.
Savannah is also an active Girl Scout and has been participating since Kindergarten (this is her 12th consecutive year in the organization). She is a youth Girl Scout leader here in Las Cruces as part of the “Desert Diamonds Older Girl Committee,” helping plan and execute enrichment programming to elementary-age Girl Scouts.
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*IVY LEAGUE DISCLAIMER:* A “verbal commitment” does not guarantee admission. An Ivy League coach cannot guarantee admission but can only commit support in the admissions process.