JEFFERSON TWP — Brooke Zukowski tries to find as much time to rest as she can. There's hardly any room in her schedule.

After school, the Knoch freshman swimmer heads to the Knights' practice from 3:30 p.m. to 5. Then Zukowski has to drive to Fox Chapel for club practice from 6 to 8 p.m.

Two or three days a week, she also gets up at 5:30 a.m. to do dry land workouts, focusing on a lot of abdominal work.

“I do at night, sometimes,” Zukowski said about when she relaxes. “I try to sleep in the car and try to get homework done. But it's worth it.”

Zukowski competes for the Fox Chapel Killer Whales club team in addition to the Knights. So far, she's seemed comfortable with varsity competition.

Zukowski hit WPIAL qualifying marks in 10 events and Knoch coach Rick Hassler is unsure of what she'll swim in the postseason.

“She's a dedicated swimmer. She's willing to help a senior, a freshman, it doesn't matter,” Hassler said. “Brooke is that type of individual that is willing to help teach and makes her as good as she is right now.”

Zukowski has a strong family pedigree when it comes to swimming. Her parents Shauna (Braun) Zukowski and Brad Zukowski, along with her aunt, Kristen Zukowski, were NAIA All-Americans at Westminster College.

Kristen earned 32 All-American and honorable mention honors, while Brad had 10 and Shauna finished with eight.

Her family helped encourage Brooke to start swimming early.

“They definitely helped a lot,” Zukowski said.

She started in the sport when she was 4 or 5 years old. Zukowski hopes to follow in her family's footsteps, even if it isn't at Westminster.

“I would like to, but for academics they don't have what I'm interested in,” said Zukowski, who hopes to go to school for nursing.

Zukowski also competed for the Knoch cross country team in the fall. She worked closely with sophomore swimmer Abby Jones, who also pushes her for swimming.

Both girls were limited by stress fractures in their legs during cross country season. That kept them around the same pace for running.

“She works very hard at practice every day and has a lot of motivation,” Jones said. “We run together, too, and I know she works hard. We both had injuries, I had nine stress fractures and she also had a stress fracture.”

Hassler, who coached Zukowski during middle school track, normally tries to recruit athletes to do track in addition to swimming.

Not that Zukowski needed a sales pitch to try the sport.

“It's great cross-over training,” Hassler said. “It carries over from one sport to another. I try to recruit for that purpose. I knew Brooke was coming out, I didn't have to recruit her.”

Zukowski's busy schedule will continue as the season wears on. But she will continue to make it work.

Plus, she's already used to it.

“It took a while, but it's OK,” Zukowski said. “It's different, but it's cool to have both. It's interesting to see the difference and I have fun at high school meets.”

Events that Knoch freshman Brooke Zukowski has qualified for WPIALs this year:200 medley relay200 freestyle200 freestyle medley100 backstroke50 freestyle100 freestyle100 breaststroke200 IM400 free relay500 freestyle