By: Mike Brown, News Correspondent

Julia Alvarez did not expect to win her first two individual swimming races in college, she said.

The freshman from San Anselmo, Calif., said she was “surprised and excited” to win both the 100-yard and 200-yard breaststroke in Northeastern’s first swim meet of the year against the University of Vermont this past Saturday at Barletta Natatorium.

Alvarez easily disposed of the competition, winning the 100-yard breaststroke by a margin of 3.81 seconds, for a time of 1:05.37. She followed that up by winning the 200-yard breaststroke by a margin of 4.07 seconds, for a time of 2:25.67. Her performance has earned her Huntington News Player of the Week honors.

“Winning my first race only motivated me to go faster in the second race,” Alvarez said. “It felt like my hard work was paying off.”
Besides the individual events, Alvarez was also part of Northeastern’s winning group in the 200-yard medley relay against Vermont.

Alvarez followed in the footsteps of her older sister, Elena Alvarez, who swam for the Huskies from 2005 to 2009. Elena also swam breaststroke races, as well as the individual medley.

“That didn’t make me come here, it just made me look at Northeastern,” Alvarez said.

Besides Northeastern, Alvarez was recruited by the University of California-Santa Barbara, the University of California-Davis, the University of Hawaii and Northwestern University.

Before Northeastern, Alvarez swam at Sir Francis Drake High School, where she was a four-year member of the varsity swim team and also a captain during her senior season.

Before high school, Alvarez swam in a recreational league. In her junior and senior years of high school, Alvarez was named an All-American in the 100-yard breaststroke.

“I didn’t know how exciting that was until I had it,” Alvarez said.

Alvarez said her proudest accomplishment as a swimmer came at Senior Nationals while in high school when she reached the finals of the 100-yard breaststroke. Alvarez said she realized that she could swim at the collegiate level when she qualified for nationals in her junior year, because she knew she could swim her events within a certain time.

Preparing for Nationals made Alvarez give up tennis, a sport she played for three years at Sir Francis Drake High School.
Since coming to Northeastern, Alvarez has noticed some stark differences between swimming in high school and swimming in Division I.

“It’s definitely much more of a commitment,” Alvarez said. “There’s more team unity, which there wasn’t much of in high school.”

She said she enjoys that the team does things outside of practice, such as exercising and team breakfasts before meets.

“All the help from the trainers is nice, too,” she said.

Alvarez has not declared a major, but she said that she might be interested in studying either criminal justice or international affairs.
For the rest of the season, Alvarez said she is only looking to improve.

“I want to get the best times [at meets], and place at CAA’s [conference championships],” she said.