Student Athlete of the Week Daisey Bui

Competitive swimming has long been a valued part of Daisey Bui's life, and with her days on the Niwot High School girls swim team limited, the senior chose to dedicate her complete attention to the pool this winter.

As someone with an immense range of interests, it likely wasn't easy for Bui to commit everything she has to swimming. In order to make that happen, she stepped away from her involvement with Up-A-Creek Robotics, a club robotics team based in Longmont, but has since taken great pride in being a leader for the Cougars.

"I actually quit robotics this year just to focus on swim," said Bui, who also plays piano. "Especially since I'm a co-captain on the team with Charlotte Heuer, I've definitely focused a lot more on (swim) this season."

For Bui, being a team captain has been both challenging and worthwhile. Her responsibilities include managing the team's Instagram page (@niwotswimanddive), organizing team dinners and helping decide which swimsuit/cap Niwot wears to each meet.

"It's been really fun, honestly," Bui said. "It's definitely a change. I didn't know there was so much that went into captaining your team. Captaining almost 50 girls is kind of crazy."

Even more, Bui said that being a co-captain has helped her "learn a lot about leadership."

Bui, the younger sister of former Niwot swimmers Leslie and Stacey Bui, has also made some impressive strides in the pool this year. At the St. Vrain All City Meet on Saturday, Jan. 20, she set personal-bests in her two "favorite" events: the 100 freestyle (1 minute, 6.62 seconds) and the 100 breaststroke (1:21.84).

Additionally, Niwot's 200 medley relay "B" team of Bui, Ava Altenborg, Shefali Joshi, and Mila Barinek swam a state-qualifying time of 2:07.98. However, Bui doesn't currently expect herself to be competing at state next month.

As Niwot's season nears its conclusion, Bui has been struck with plenty of emotions, although she's looking forward to Niwot's senior day meet against Windsor High School on Tuesday, Jan. 23.

"It's definitely been the most emotional season," Bui said. "Especially in the past couple of weeks and with our senior night upcoming on Tuesday, there's going to be a lot of tears, and there have been a lot of tears. It's a really big moment because this is essentially going to be the end of my swimming career, which has been going on since I was like six."

Bui added that she cherishes spending time with her teammates outside of the pool - often at Chick-fil-A.

"(Swimming) brings a team together in a way that I wouldn't connect with people at school," Bui said. "Of course, I love my school friends, but it's a different thing with teammates because we're competing together. I've always enjoyed the time after meets when we're carpooling home together. We went to Chick-fil-A a lot."

Although she hasn't fully committed yet, Bui is leaning toward staying close to home and attending the University of Colorado Boulder, where both of her older sisters graduated. The youngest Bui said she was recently accepted into CU Boulder's exploratory studies program.