Boynton Beach, Florida-native Madison Cummings has announced her verbal commitment to Florida State University in the fall of 2019; she plans to study Criminal Justice and Psychology. Cummings will join her “teammate and best friend” Chade Nersicio (“I’m super excited to start college and college swimming side by side with her”), as well as class of 2023 verbal commits Emily Cordovi, Leanna Gharbaoui, Lizzie Harris, and Sydney VanOvermeiren, in Tallahassee.
“After an extremely hard year both mentally & physically [editor’s note: see story below] I’m excited for my future at Florida State University. FSU is the perfect fit for me, between being in the top 3 schools in my field of study and having an amazing coaching staff, I can’t wait to start this new chapter in my life.”
Cummings is a senior in the IB Program at Atlantic Community High School in Delray Beach. She holds school records in the 100 back and 100 fly and was awarded the Sun Sentinel Character Counts award and was featured in the newspaper. Cummings also swims year-round under head coach John Kjaerulff at East Coast Aquatic Club. She’s been on a tear since January, lowering her PBs in the SCY 200/1000 free, 50/200 back, 50/100 fly, and 100 IM, as well as the LCM 50/100/200 free, 100 back, 100/200 fly, and 400 IM. She won the 100 fly at Cary Futures.
Best times (SCY / LCM):
- 100 Back – 56.63 / 1.04.63
- 200 Back – 2.01.62 / 2.19.68
- 100 Fly – 55.89 / 1.01.39
- 200 Fly – 2.05.22 / 2.20.32
- 50 Free – 24.00 / 27.31
- 100 Free – 52.57 / 59.18
- 200 Free – 1.51.49 / 2.14.10
If you have a commitment to report, please send an email with a photo (landscape, or horizontal, looks best) and a quote to [email protected].
The following was submitted by Madison Cummings:
“My story.. haha -“
“The beginning of September of 2017, I slipped and fell on deck and the pain was unbelievable.. of course my mom and Coach told me to suck it up and get back in the water, but the pain became unbareable and my mom brought me to the hospital, which led to an MRI which led to one of the hardest things in my life that I have had to endure. I was sent to an Orthepedic Surgeon.. the first one, who said I not only had a bad fracture in my lower back, but I also had a herniated disk as well as a slipped disk. I was told I needed to be put in a back brace that I would need to wear 24/7… I actually only swam in one high school swim meet last year, and prior I was hoping and working hard for an Amazing season.. A month later, I was not healing at all and was sent to a specialist, I was then sent to be fitted for a huge hard uncomfortable thick plastic brace that I was to again wear 24/7.. Just think not being able to swim high school in my Junior Year and now being a teenage girl in high school with the absolute worst fasion accessory ever. After another MRI this new specialist told me that this was an injury that I must have had for quite a while and it slowly progressed. I was not allowed to swim, or do any physical activity for almost 4 months, I was then beginning to heal at this point, but mentaly this had defeated me, my school work suffered, I was angry, unbearable at home. The orthepedic finally sent me to Physical therapy 4 times per week, then shortly after allowed me to get back in the water, BUT.. he said if I wanted to swim it would need to be with the brace. Not really realizing how hard this would actually be I jumped at the opportunity…. Wow talk about out of shape, and then talk about drag, and having to swim in a way my body had never done. It was tough, it was hard, but I kept pushing, this brace was ripping my skin so badly in the water I eventually started wearing a surfer rash guard in order to prevent the rubbing.. yep you guessed it, double double drag…. I pushed through and it got a lil easier each day. After a total of almost 7 month from beginning until the day the dr. said I could finally swim brace free. It was 3 weeks before Speedo Sectionals in Plantation, my first meet, my Coach told me not to have any expectations, it was my first meet and whatever I swam would be an accomplishment! Amazingly enough I swam and came very close to my best times.. I had a lil pain, but realized it wasn’t the actual injury pain, but pain from my body doing things it hadnt done for a long while. Coaches from other teams came up to me in amazement.. saying they are going to put their swimmers in a full brace to swim too.. haha.. Long story short, My mom, my coach and I had realized that I had been swimming for a long time with a pain that I just thought was normal. And now that my injury is healed, not only do I have absolutely no pain but I’m stronger than ever. I did great at Sectionals, Senior championships too.. I was never able to swim high school season last year as well as go to Junior Nationals (which was tough to say the least) … I truly feel blessed and lucky and have been having an amazing comeback! I am 100% healed, stronger than ever and absolutely PAIN FREE… Look out swim world because I’ve just begun! Haha..” [sic]
Cool comeback story, good for her