By Kate Weatherby and Grace Dusenbury

In a normal day, senior Justin Cucchi wakes up at 4 a.m. to go to swim practice before heading to Grady for a full day of school. After that, Cucchi attends another swim practice before going home for the night. Cucchi started swimming when he was 10 years old at Garden Hills, a local community pool, for a summer league. Now he is captain of the Grady swim team, and is also dedicated to Dynamo, a local club team. Cucchi plans to continue to swim in college, and has dramatically progressed over the past few years.

“I don’t know how to describe it,” Cucchi said. “Usually when you start swimming you’re like five or six, so I started swimming so late, but I dropped so much time. It doesn’t seem right. That’s a good thing for college, I guess, because it shows you progressed so much in a short time that ‘we want him’.”

Cucchi’s progress can be attributed to his dedication to the sport. He estimates he spends 20 hours in the pool each week, and has practices every day but Sunday. His morning practices occur three days a week, and he must wake up at four in the morning to train. His hard work has allowed him to vastly improve, and from September to December of last year, Cucchi averaged a 4.7 percent improvement in time. Last year, Cucchi qualified for one individual event at the state championships, the 200 individual medley, and he finished 18th overall. This year he qualified for six individual events, and placed 12th in the finals of the 100 yard backstroke and 15th in the finals of the 200 IM.

“It used to be motivation [was my biggest weakness] because I couldn’t go to practice in the morning,” Cucchi said. “I thought there was no way I could wake up at four to go to practice. That was not something that was fun. But I’ve kind of gotten over that, told myself to suck it up.”

His support group of coaches, teammates and family has also helped him. Cucchi said that his Dynamo coach, Beth Winkowski, has provided some of his biggest motivation.

“I thought there was no way I could swim in college,” Cucchi said. “I’m not that fast, but I’ve worked really hard, and she’s kind of pushed me to places where I don’t think I could have gone.”

Winkowski has coached Cucchi for the past year, and has been at Dynamo for two years. Winkowski knows Cucchi very well, and appreciates his athletic commitment.

“Justin has always been great,” Winkowski said. “He is a really motivated athlete, and is also a really good listener. It’s a unique combination.”

Cucchi’s competitive drive has also been a factor in his success. Grady swim coach and math teacher John Rives has seen him develop over the past four years.

“When he is in a race, Justin doesn’t simply swim for time, he swims to win,” Rives said. “He wants to race the person that’s next to him and beat them.”

Cucchi’s top three schools are William and Mary, Villanova and Penn State, all Division I colleges that have been in contact with him for recruitment. Winkowski has been a large help to Cucchi with the college recruiting process.

“It is a four-year decision,” Winkowski said. “Your decision extends beyond swimming. He is looking for a place that academically challenges him as well as providing a competitive swim program.”

Before heading off to college, Cucchi hopes to end his final high school season strongly.  Cucchi qualified for nine state events: 100 back, 200 IM, 100 breast, 200 free, 500 free, 100 free and three relays. As a captain for Grady, he is admired for his leadership and competitive spirit by his coach and teammates.

“He really takes the leadership position very seriously,” Rives said. “He likes to explain to the freshman what’s required of them at a meet, and likes to provide the sophomores and juniors guidance on how they can become better swimmers in their techniques. Other people have seen Justin expand his expertise in strokes, so they are trying to swim other areas besides their primary strength strokes.”

Cucchi has brought knowledge to Grady that the team would otherwise not have.

“He’s a very good leader,” co-captain Sloan Hodges said. “He always knows what to do since he swims year round. As a captain, he holds people accountable and makes sure that they are doing the best that they can.”