Senior Mason Fowler has been swimming at R.J. Reynolds High School since he was a freshman. Fowler prefers to swim the 100 yard butterfly, 100 and 200 meter butterfly. Fowler also swam at the Gateway YWCA for the Seadragons for the past five years as well. Fowler has set the school record for the 100 yard butterfly and also made the cut for the Junior National Championships in the 100 and 200 yard butterfly.
“He works really hard in the pool, he always gives maximum effort and manages to keep everyone in a good mood while doing it,” junior Emma Rowe said.
Fowler is more than a great athlete; he is very involved with the arts programs at Reynolds. He can be found harmonizing alongside the A capella group and working with theater as an actor and screenwriter. Outside of school, Fowler enjoys cooking and learning about topics that are interesting to him.
“I think of myself as somewhat of a comedian, Fowler said. “I love doing standup and situational comedy. That is also what I bring to the team; I love keeping things light in the appropriate situations at practices and meets”
Fowler’s training at the YWCA was focused around middle distance swimming. The practices were very long and involved swimming huge distances. However, he has transitioned to Efinity Aquatics Club recently, which is more of a sprint based program. The practices last one and a half to two hours and consist of mostly high intensity interval sprint workouts.
“Mason lights up the mood during our early morning workouts,” Rowe said. “It can be hard to get in the mood to swim so early but he has such an outgoing, funny personality that really helps the team out.”
The RJR Swim Team is gearing up for a very competitive season with strong swimmers on both the boys’ and girls’ teams. Fowler will play an integral role in their success this season. Not only will he be one of Reynolds top swimmers in several events, but he will also be important leader on the team. He is known as the go to man to get the team excited and ready to go.
“Before big races I get very nervous and dread having to swim the race, Blackfish [Fowler] always talks me into swimming a good race,” Rowe said.
After graduation, Fowler wants to continue swimming, he just does not know where and in what capacity yet. He did not expect to be doing this today considering before high school he never really thought about swimming.
“Mason has gotten much better over his years at Reynolds, he drops his times almost every meet,” math teacher Caroline Jones said. “He is intrinsically motivated, no matter what situation, you can tell he is working his hardest to get better.”
Photo from Ethan Green/RJR Black and Gold