Gianna Ferrante decided to make a commitment to Kenyon College to further her education and swim career at Signing Day on Thursday, May 15.

Ferrante said she chose Kenyon mostly because of swimming. “Kenyon has a great swimming program but it was also academically challenging and that’s something that I’m looking forward to. I’m going undecided so I’m really excited to explore all the options and excited to see what path I end up taking,” said Ferrante.

Although deciding isn’t easy, Ferrante said that having her teammates’ support made the decision much easier. She said, “I think Maria Regas has been a huge influence because she figured out where she was going to college pretty early, and I just wondered how she did that. She told me that she talked to the coach, went visiting, went on a real recruit trip, meeting the team and I was like okay I have to get on this, so she definitely played a big part. She was one of the only people pushing me to pursue what I wanted to do, not what my coach thinks, or my friends thinks, or my family thinks, just do what I want.”

While having her teammates’ support made the decision easier, Ferrante was still unsure of what college to attend this fall. Ferrante said, “I was considering John Carroll pretty seriously because both of my sisters go there as well. But when I got to the Kenyon campus, I realized that I wasn’t really considering Carroll anymore. The way I felt on that campus was totally different than how I felt on any other campus, including John Carroll. I just felt like Kenyon should be my home for the next four years.”

Regas was also a senior swimmer this past year and has been close friends with Ferrante since they were young. She said, “I think that Gianna swimming at Kenyon is a great choice for her. She’s been an amazing swimmer her whole life and has really showed her capability these past four years.”

The swim coach at Kenyon and Ferrante have been talking back and forth since last summer. She said, “We started talking and then we kind of stopped talking for a little bit because I started considering other colleges a little bit more and Kenyon is also very very expensive so that kind of put Kenyon at the bottom of my list. However, I obviously ended up really liking it once I got to meet the team and once a took a tour of the campus.”

Although Ferrante didn’t know what college to go to at first, her senior teammate Jordan Kabb knew that wherever she ended up, it would be a perfect fit. Kabb said, “Gianna has always been a standout teammate. When she swims, everyone is there to support her because she does the same in return.”

Regas recalls that she and Ferrante are always looking out for each other, especially when it comes to swim. She said, “[Ferrante] definitely has impacted me in a positive way. We’re very very similar people and we practice the same. So when we’re having a bad day it kind of lingers onto both of us but we know how to pick each other up and get back into that positive mindset. That’s why I think she’ll do so good in college.”

Kabb said he was excited to watch Ferrante continue out her career. He said, “She’s definitely given everything to the sport. The first thing you think of when you hear Gianna is swimming. It’s definitely an enormous part of her life.”