SPRINGDALE — The roads were slick with snow and ice when Springdale High swim coach Matt Hervey texted his team to see if anyone could practice over Christmas break.

Driving conditions were especially bad around senior Alejandra Campos’ neighborhood. Campos’ mother wasn’t about to let her drive herself to practice, but Campos insisted that she couldn’t miss.

“I had to beg her to take me,” Campos said. “It’s my last year. Every practice really counts for me.”

Hervey wasn’t surprised when he got a quick text back from Campos saying she would be there. About one-third of the team managed to make it to the voluntary practice, including Campos, with her mother sitting in The Jones Center bleachers after driving 
her.

“For her to miss, something apocalyptic has happened,” Hervey said. “You want to call her mom and be like, ‘What’s going on? Is she sick? Was she in a wreck?’ She would run cross country in the morning, then come swim in the afternoon.”

Campos’ dedication has been a constant since she joined the swim team as a junior after never having any prior formal training.

Her work ethic is a large part of the reason she has already qualified for state as part of the Bulldogs medley, 200-yard freestyle and 400-yard freestyle relay teams. And she is also close to qualifying individually in the 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard freestyle.

“For someone like her, who’s never done anything like this, to come out and do what she’s done, it’s unbelievable,” Hervey said. “Even to just be where she is now, as of now, she’s the best non-trained swimmer I’ve ever had. If she qualifies, she’d be the first that hadn’t had some kind of formal training.”

Hervey plans to race Campos first in both relays the next few meets, which will allow her to count her own relay times individually, essentially doubling the number of opportunities she has to qualify for state.

Campos only needs to shave less than half a second off her 50 time in order to qualify. It’s an accomplishment she has chased each of the last two years, one that she has six more meets to qualify for.

“It’s just one breath,” Campos said. “Cutting down one last breath, cutting down on my flip turns, starting out a little bit faster. Just those little things. … (Qualifying) would be the best reward. Because I work really hard in practice. I feel good at the end of practice knowing that I did my best. Just being able to qualify, having that as a reward, would be the best.”

Campos has made an impact in just the short time she has been on the swim team, lowering her 50 time by around three seconds and her 100 time by seven seconds.

But she’s also flourished in other avenues, qualifying for state in cross country, track and on the mock trial team as part of the Springdale law academy. She served as a captain for the cross country team this year and even earned a black belt in taekwondo when she was younger.

She will start track season as soon as swim ends.

“Right now I can’t go to track practice,” Campos said. “But swim really helps with my running. My times in track have also dropped.”

The different activities don’t leave much downtime for Campos, who will attend Arkansas in the fall. Especially when factoring in her participation in Springdale’s International Baccalaureate program.

“People refer to it as AP classes on steroids,” Campos said.

Hervey first met Campos when she was a fifth grader who began attending the Springdale Bayyari Elementary School he taught at.

“I got to see her grow up,” Hervey said. “So to see her as a senior now after having known her as a fifth-grader, it makes me feel good to see a kid grow up. You kind of knew then. When we had the fifth-grade Olympics, she always wanted to be the first race. You kind of saw the determination and drive.”

Hervey got a chance to coach her in swimming when Campos’ friend, Laney Rhoads, urged her to join the team. It’s a decision she’s glad she made.

“What I regret is not doing it earlier,” Campos said. “I’m swimming with people who have doing it since they were 11. So I can only imagine how I would have been if I had started earlier.”

As is, it has worked out pretty well for her.