Born and raised in Newport Beach, California, UNLV junior Hayden Hemmens became a lifeguard-trainee-turned-Division-One-swimmer who eventually made his way to the desert. As he looks to help his team climb the ladder at the conference championships, here is his story in his own words:
 
iREBEL by Hayden Hemmens
 
I have been swimming since I was 10 years old but I joined a club team to make myself more competitive for surf lifesaving. I was first an ocean competitor before I realized I had a chance to be a decent swimmer in the pool as well. I was involved in the Junior Lifeguard in Southern California from age 9-16 where I spent most of my time training to be a working lifeguard and learning the hazards of the ocean. This is where my love for competing began.
 
Throughout my childhood I had many serious hobbies other than swimming: soccer, baseball, track and field and piano. After a few years of swimming on a club team, I decided to make this sport my full focus going into high school and I knew swimming was going to be a leading factor for the location of my future education.
 
I wanted to stay in California so I could be close to the beach and stay committed to my lifesaving training, so in 2015 for my first semester of college I attended Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Here I found out how much I truly loved swimming because after one quarter (12 weeks, and only 3 swim meets) of nearly breaking my body down physically, mentally, and emotionally, I made the toughest decision of my life; to quit swimming at a four-year university level, lose my scholarship and a full year of eligibility. My shoulders had been in pain for about a month straight and I decided to give it all up to come back home to Newport Beach and rehabilitate my body. I did this not knowing if I would ever get the opportunity to swim at the D-I level again.
 
I went on to attend my local community college, Orange Coast College, and completed my freshman year by training full-time with the team but not getting a chance to compete. The following year, I had to retake all my courses from Cal Poly because the quarter system credits didn't transfer to semester system credits. This made it so I wasn't going to be transferring from OCC in 2 years, so I decided to redshirt. Not competing for the second year in a row was one of the toughest times of my swimming career, because as my teammates were competing and getting results, I was sitting in the stands, again.
 
At the start of my third post-high school year, I took a semester off and moved to the Gold Coast of Australia to train surf lifesaving. It has always been a dream of mine to compete internationally and with the best in the world. Training lifesaving includes swim training so I joined a swim club as soon as I could. Unfortunately, the training reminded me of my three months at Cal Poly, so I decided to train by myself in the pool, writing my own workouts every night for the following morning. I spent five months training and competing full time in Australia, making a name for myself in the sport of surf lifesaving, before I came back to compete for OCC.
This was the stepping stone to my swimming career here at UNLV. By the end of the OCC swim season in the spring of 2018, I was named the CCCAA men's swimmer of the state at the California State Swimming Championships and made my commitment to attend UNLV in the fall of 2018.
 
Now, swimming for UNLV has given me the best opportunity to make myself the best swimmer possible. On top of the focus of pool swimming, the amazing coaching staff prepared me for the Lifesaving World Championships last November. Here I competed for the United States at the highest stage possible in surf lifesaving and placed eighth in the 200-meter obstacle race in the pool, sixth in the ironman (a cumulative race of running, swimming, surfski paddling, and prone paddling) and second in the surf race (approximately a 400m swim, starting from a short run into the water, swim past the waves, and back in for a running sprint finish).
 
I was the only male U.S. competitor to come home with a medal. All of this would not have been possible if it wasn't for the support of my amazing teammates and coaches here at UNLV. Nowhere else would I have had the opportunity to train for and compete at the World Championships, and I am very grateful for everything this team has done for me.
 
Training here has given me the confidence I needed going into my first WAC swimming championship. For me, swimming has always been about trying to reach my ultimate athletic potential, and UNLV has given me the best chance to reach this goal. Swimming will always be a part of my life, whether it be in the ocean or in the pool, and I could not be happier to spend this part of my life swimming with the best teammates and coaches I could ever ask for.  


Hemmens and the UNLV men's team finish competing Saturday at the 2019 WAC Swimming & Diving Championships at the CRWC Natatorium in Houston. Follow the action here: WAC Championships Central