New to high school swimming, Kai Joyner is already a record-setter with Olympic dreams

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Jan. 14—ROCHESTER — In just less than a month with the Mayo High School boys swimming and diving team, Kai Joyner has broken seven pool and three team records.

Until this season, the sophomore had been a swimmer with Rochester Swim Club exclusively, but recently decided to give the high school team a try.

He's no stranger to success in the pool, with a long list of club accomplishments.

"I've had a couple appearances at (Speedo Junior National Championships)," Joyner said. "I've made finals, made top eight, gotten some medals at junior nationals. ... I've broken some club swimming state records all the way from 11-12, 13-14 and 15-16 age group(s). So yeah, those would be the ones that stand out to me."

Club swimming has allowed Joyner to connect with swimmers his own age in town, including his longtime friends, Century's Eli Holmes and Grady Bargfrede, but he felt joining the high school swim team at Mayo could offer him something special.

"Just to be able to continue the legacy of good student-athletes at Mayo, just be able to represent my school," Joyner said, "be able to have a peer group outside of just people in my classes that I can actually connect with at school. I think that's a big reason."

He joined the team a few weeks late, as he was waiting to compete at the Winter Junior Championships through USA Swimming, which ran Dec. 10-13 in Austin, Texas. He finished sixth place in the 1,000-yard freestyle, eighth in the 1-mile freestyle, ninth in the 500-yard freestyle and 13th in the 200-yard freestyle.

High school swimming has been Joyner's first experience with dual meets, meaning he's swimming against some of his club teammates instead of with them.

"I think the dual meet experience has been really, really fun," Joyner said. "Being able to swim against some of my best friends, rather than on the same team as them, it really brought out that competitive spirit in me. High school swimming, ... you're doing it for something bigger than yourself. Whereas in club swimming, yeah, there's meets where there's team scores and stuff, but I think being able to represent your school is really, really cool. It's a good opportunity."

Joyner started swimming at five years old, introduced to the sport by his parents. His mom, a Green Bay, Wis. native and his dad, from Tucson, Ariz., met swimming laps at the Rochester Athletic Club pool after moving to town for work. His younger brother Ryk is also a swimmer with the Rochester club, in eighth grade.

"It's kind of fitting," Joyner said of his parents, who are former college athletes. His mom played basketball at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and his dad ran at the University of Arizona.

He played basketball, flag football and a bit of soccer growing up, but the pool was always where he felt most comfortable.

"There was something about swimming that I really just loved," Joyner said.

Joyner plans to swim with the Spartans next season as a junior, but is unsure if he'll swim on the high school team to prioritize achieving his biggest goals yet: swimming in the Olympic Trials for Team USA in 2028.

"Ever since I watched Michael Phelps (in) his last 2016 Rio Olympics, I've always wanted a cap of the American flag on it and my name on it," Joyner said. "So I think to be able to represent the US at an international meet would be super cool ... like the Olympics or the World Championships."

His plan for accomplishing said goal?

"I went to the USA Swimming National Select Camp in Colorado Springs at the Olympic Training Center in October, and one of the things they always told me was 'ABT' — Always Be Tinkering," Joyner said. "And so always be looking for ways to improve. When you become good at a sport, it's easy to get really ahead of yourself and be like, 'Oh, I'm the king of the world, no one can tell me anything that I need to do better, because I'm the best.'

"But I think for me, I try to focus on just constantly getting new advice, trying new things and also ... not making swimming my entire being. I think having an outside life in anything, whether it's work, school, sports, I think that's also going to be super important. Just so I don't get caught up in everything."

Mayo coach Scott Diercks has coached Joyner for a short time, but has noticed what a great team player he is.

"He trains at a different level than everybody else. We have to change his intervals for him because he's so much faster than many of his teammates," Diercks said. "He's always willing to swim whatever events score the most points for the team, and he works with the younger kids quite a bit, too. ... Every week we have some one-on-one time, and he'll work with the junior varsity guys. He does a great job with that."

Diercks has experience coaching another swimmer with Olympic dreams in Lourdes' grad Jenny Shaughnessy, who competed in the preliminaries for the U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials in 2008.

Joyner also hopes to swim for a high Division I program in college. Recruiting rules state college coaches cannot reach out to him until June 15, but his top choices at the moment are the University of Indiana, UC Berkeley and the University of Texas at Austin.

Joyner said he wouldn't be where he is now without the support of his family, teammates and coaches.

"I've been really blessed to have good coaches all the way from being that little five-year-old when I started out swimming all the way up until now," Joyner said. "And so, yeah, I definitely owe it to my family and coaches."

Joyner hopes to compete in his first high school state meet next month. Having set pool records in the 100 free (Mankato West, Northfield), 200 free (Northfield), 200 individual medley (Mankato West), 500 freestyle (Century) and 100 backstroke (Mankato West, Northfield), as well as team records in the 200 free (1:38.95), 100 free (46.23) and 500 free (4:27.90), Joyner is well on his way.

"I went last year (to watch)," Joyner said of the state meet. "I was blown away by the noise. It was so loud in there, louder than any club meet or junior nationals meet I've been to, and I think that come end of February, it's going to be that loud again, and I think that's the atmosphere that I can really thrive in. And so I'm just super excited for it."

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