Hard work keeps paying off in the pool for Paige Banton.
The 21-year-old former Sault resident and Sault Surge swimmer recently won two gold medals and a bronze at the U.S. college level, competing for West Virginia’s Marshall University against other U.S. colleges at the 2024 Sun Belt Conference Swimming and Diving Championships held Feb. 14 - 17 in Orlando, Florida.
Banton won bronze in the 200-metre individual medley, gold in the 200-metre breaststroke and gold in the 100-metre breaststroke.
“As a naturally competitive person, I strive to always do better. The 100 was really special for me because I broke the Marshall record as well as the Sun Belt record that was set back in 2013,” Banton told SooToday in a recent phone interview.
Her record-breaking swim time in that race was 1:01:36.
“It was unbelievable. I had to do a double-take when I looked at the board. It took a minute before it hit me,” Banton said.
Graduating from the Sault’s St. Mary’s College in 2020, Banton earned a scholarship to Marshall University based on her academic achievements and her success as a swimmer with the Sault Surge Aquatic Team.
“It definitely felt like my hard work paid off,” Banton said of receiving a scholarship.
“I was thrilled because scholarships are limited to a certain number of people and I’m really grateful to have this opportunity.”
Banton is currently in her fourth year of study in Marshall University’s Dietetics Bachelor of Science undergraduate degree program.
She plans to begin a Master's program in the fall and intends to keep swimming competitively for Marshall while earning her Master’s.
Her gold medal-winning success at the U.S. College athletics level is a natural progression for Banton.
She began swimming competitively at seven years of age in her native Thunder Bay.
Moving to the Sault with her family when she was 11, she swam competitively with the Northern Storm Aquatic Club, and then with the new Sault Surge.
“My mother Erin Banton still swims with the Soo Polar Bears Masters and that’s really why I started swimming. Along the way I’ve played other sports like track and field and basketball in high school but swimming really stuck with me,” Banton said.
“Throughout my time with the Surge, I had the opportunity to attend a lot of high-level meets. I’ve been to a couple of national-level meets. I’ve been to Olympic trials,” Banton recalled, reflecting on her time as a competitive swimmer in the Sault.
“My favourite meets with the Surge were the North Eastern Ontario Regionals. Those are a great way to make friends and make good memories. You meet other athletes that you can relate to and often you end up seeing old friends at bigger meets.”
At the U.S. college level, she competed against friend and former Sault Surge swimmer Logan Belanger - now studying and swimming for Georgia Southern University - at the Sun Belt Conference Championships in mid-February.
Though attending university in the U.S., Banton was still able to swim for the Surge in the FINA Swimming World Cup in Toronto in Oct. 2022.
“That was such an exciting time. I was swimming with these incredibly fast people from all over the world,” Banton said.
She is fully committed to being both a university student and a competitive swimmer at Marshall University.
Her day begins at 6 a.m. with weight training and swimming on Monday, Wednesday and Friday of each week with dry land training such as cycling and yoga on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
“You really notice how well being a swimmer and an athlete in general prepares you for the real world,” Banton said.
“I like it here,” she said of living and studying at Marshall, located in Huntington, West Virginia.
“I definitely miss the snow sometimes but it’s quite beautiful here and the weather is generally pretty nice. The Marshall University campus itself is gorgeous. It’s a smaller tight-knit community, and Huntington is a very college-centred town. We have basketball and football games here and the culture is really great.”
Though now in the U.S., Banton and other former Sault Surge swimmers now attending university send videotaped messages of encouragement through social media to current Surge swimmers as they prepare for competitions.
“It’s a great way to impart some knowledge and memories to these kids that are swimming for Sault Surge right now and to get them to appreciate the training and opportunities they have.”
Banton returns to visit her family in the Sault during the Christmas season, Thanksgiving and spring break.
Does she think she will always be a Saultite at heart?
“Yes, I think so. The Sault is where I spent the majority of my life and it’s paved the way for how I’ve grown.”