The first Tuesday of each month, we interview someone from Charlotte Latin Athletics with twenty questions to help the CLS community get to know some of our athletes, coaches, and supporters a bit better.
 
We are kicking off 2025 with the Connor sisters: Lila and Greyson. Lila is in her senior year and has been part of at least one school record-breaking relay every year since she was a freshman. She partnered with fellow senior Dorothy Patterson and 2024 grads Charley Floyd and Ivy Monk to win the 200 medley relay and the 400 free relay at the 2023 state championships. This year, Lila gets to compete with her sister. New to the varsity team, Greyson is a freshman who placed second in the Greater Charlotte Middle School Athletic Association last year in both the individual medley and the butterfly. Read on to get to know a bit about these two powerful swimmers.   
 
1. How did the Connor family land in Charlotte?  
Greyson: Our parents met at our dad's brother's wedding. Our mom's best friend married our dad's brother.
Lila: Mom had been her roommate in college and they're still really close. Dad was living in New York and Mom was living in Atlanta. The wedding might have been in Charlotte, I'm not sure. But they kind of met in the middle and Charlotte had a strong banking industry.
Greyson: Dad is a banker.
Lila: At Truist. He does interest rates and commodities, but we don't really know what that means. Mom worked at Bank of America when they moved here, but now she is the preschool weekday director at Myers Park Presbyterian Church, which is our church.
 
2. Are there any family pets?  
G: We have a Standard Poodle named Sophie.
L: She just turned eight in September.
2a. Who does she like best?
L: Me.
G: It's true.
L: My bedroom is downstairs and she can only be downstairs, so we spend a lot of time together.
 
3. How would you describe your relationship as siblings?  
G: I feel like it's pretty good.
L: Now that Greyson is in Senior 1 with me, we spend a lot of time together.
G: We go everywhere together. School, swimming, and home.
L: I feel like we know each other really well.
(Editor's Note: Senior 1 is a training group within their club swimming team, ATOM.)
 
4. You both started Latin in TK. Who have been your most memorable teachers along the way?
L: In Lower School, I had Mr. Gutmann for third grade. He's not here anymore, but he was the first male teacher I had and he was so funny and nice. In Middle School, I liked Mr. Wolfe. I didn't really like math before his class, but he kind of changed that for me. In Upper School, I had Ms. Barger in tenth grade and again this year. She has such a strong voice and really encouraged me to speak up in class, ask questions, and throw out ideas, even if they're not correct. She's taught me it's important to just try your best and speak out.
G: I've liked all of my teachers. I had Ms. Keith in fifth grade, which was a Covid year so it wasn't normal, but she is a swimmer too and meeting a grown-up swimmer was inspiring and cool. Kind of like Lila with Mr. Wolfe, I had Mrs. Korkowski in Middle School for math and she made me enjoy it more. This year, one teacher that's impacted me a lot is Mr. Alt. He's a sub, but my English teacher is on maternity leave, so we've had him a lot. He's really funny and nice and he is really encouraging. He lets people speak up and he's really easy to talk to.
 
5. Are you involved in any clubs or other extracurriculars?  
L: We both do art. I've taken it throughout high school and found my passion in acrylic paint. I got a Scholastic Gold Key Award for one of my paintings last year, which was a big deal for me.
G: Sort of like Lila, I found my rhythm in art but with watercolor. I have not gotten a Gold Key yet, but hopefully I will in the future. I enjoy seeing what I can do to make something look realistic, at least to me, through watercolor.
 
6. Are you working on any specific projects now?
L: I'm working on a painting of a door. We took a family trip to Paris in 2022 and my mom became obsessed with these big, grand doors that line the streets. She took a picture of a big, blue door, so I started painting it for her, and I've been working on it all year.
G: I took a picture of the light house at Bald Head Island that has a lot of nature included in the foreground, and I've been working on painting that image in watercolor. It's really detailed and I've been working on it a long time.  
 
7. You've both been swimming competitively for years. How did it start?  
L: I did summer league swim team first, while I was doing other sports. I danced until fourth grade, and I played soccer, but our dad swam at UNC and he really wanted to get us into swimming.
G: Whenever we were at the pool or at the beach, our dad would make us swim.
L: Oh yeah, that was so annoying.
G: I remember when I was in TK and maybe kindergarten, Mom would take me to swim lessons. Then I did summer league too.
L: One of my friends on our summer team suggested I do year-round swim and Dad was all for it. I remember going to the tryout and this coach named Stephanie asked me if I could do a flip turn and I said no. I was 11, which is pretty old for starting swim. I learned how to do a flip turn on my own after that first week.
G: I just followed Lila to ATOM (Aquatic Team of Mecklenburg) since she was doing it, but also some of my friends were swimming with them too.
 
8. Was there ever a question whether or not you would compete in swimming for Latin?  
L: I feel like it was a given, honestly. For me, Ivy (Monk '24) and Charley (Floyd '24) really influenced me. Whatever they did, I was going to do. I never saw why I wouldn't do Latin swim. I also saw James (Harper '24) and Zach (Spicer '24) from our club team doing it.
G: It was definitely a given for me too. Lila did it before me and also several of my friends were doing it, so I didn't even have to think about it.
 
9. What are some of the differences between swimming for school and swimming for a club team year-round?  
L: Club swimming is such a big time commitment. It's easier to improve and excel because you're practicing all the time. If you're just doing high school swimming, there's not enough time in the season or in the practices to have that kind of improvement. But swimming for Latin is a lot like what I've seen at collegiate swim meets, where how you place and score for the team is most important. The time isn't as critical. It's about performing for your team and being on the sidelines to cheer for everyone else. The meets are so fun because we're all there supporting one another.
G: I really like seeing everyone at meets even though we don't get to practice with them. It's cool to see the community they've built during practice and they let me into when we're together at meets. Club swimming is really hard and draining. It's a lot of work, but it's also rewarding and it's fun to see my club teammates who swim for other schools at school meets, which is a less competitive atmosphere than we're used to with club.
 
10. Have you had to deal with any injuries or other setbacks so far in your swimming careers?
G: I broke my arm in sixth grade. It wasn't a result of swimming, but I had to stay out of the water for awhile. It made me really appreciate swimming, actually, because I had nothing to do and I missed my swimming friends. I felt like I was a lot happier when I was able to get back in the water.
L: I haven't really had injuries, but I was not good during middle school. I was so little and I was swimming against girls that had muscles. Seventh and eighth grade were hard years for me in swimming. I think it was between my freshman and sophomore years that I really found my place in the water. Greyson was a lot faster in middle school than I was. I think she found her footing a lot faster than I did.
 
11. Lila, you're committed to swim for Georgetown. Congratulations! What can you share about the recruiting process?  
L: The recruiting process is hard. I made the decision that I wanted to swim in college after a meet my sophomore year when I swam really well and made Futures cuts in all of my events. That gave me confidence that I might be able to do it, so I talked to Coach (Michael) Chadwick about it and which schools I might be interested in. He encouraged me to think about using swimming to my advantage to get into the best college I could get into. When the recruiting period opened on June 15^th, I started emailing schools, and then it was a whole year of calls, visits, so many emails, more calls. And calls are scary with college coaches because you are trying to sell yourself. Balancing the heavy load of junior year with all of that was really challenging. In November, I had visits every single weekend. The trips were necessary, but stressful because I missed so much school and so many practices. Then there's the weight of trying to make a decision that most people have another year to figure out. I'm not sure most people realize how much work recruits have to put in to the process. They see signing day pictures and think it must've been easy.
 
12. What made you choose Georgetown and what do you plan to study there?  
L: When I stepped on the Georgetown campus, I knew that was where I wanted to go. The girls on the team were amazing. I think there were seven girls (recruits) on the visit that weekend, and four of us committed to Georgetown. I'm going in as a marketing major but plan to double major in finance. The business school is phenomenal and I know it will prepare me and introduce me to opportunities beyond college. I'm also really excited to get faster in the water. I know the training will be great and hopefully I'll build more muscle. We went to swim meets on both of my visits to Georgetown and it was fun to be there and see what it's like. It's very similar to Latin in that everyone supports each other and it gets loud.
 
13. Greyson, do you have any aspirations to swim in college?  
G: I have no clue whether I want to swim in college. My goal right now is to get Futures cuts, probably in 200 back and 50 free. Those are the events that I'm closest in. That'll be a big step for me. Lila has been on a lot of big travel trips, but I've just been to Southern Premier. Going to a national level meet would be a big deal for me.
 
14. Have you had any role models within Latin Athletics?
L: Definitely Ivy and Charley. They were so fast and when I was younger I thought they were above me, and that maybe I wasn't good enough to be on their relay. Throughout the years we got a lot closer and they helped me find a sense of confidence in myself. They are such sweet girls and they were always so supportive – and they really loved swimming, which I liked.
G: For me, it's Lila. I usually do what she does. I danced because she danced, and played soccer because she played soccer, and joined ATOM because she did. She's always been my role model.  
 
15. Alright, let's finish with a few fun questions. If time and money were no issue, where would you travel & why?
L: I think I would travel around to all of the big cities in Europe. I love going to different places, observing the people – what they say, how they dress. I'm very interested in European cities and I want to see as much as I can.
G: I'd go to the Bahamas because I think it is so beautiful there.
 
16. If you could choose another sport to excel in, what would it be?
L: I'd say gymnastics. I'm too tall for it, but I love watching it in the Olympics. I feel like the rigor of the sport is pretty similar to swimming. You can see how hard those athletes work and I think what they can do is really cool.
G: For me, it would probably be volleyball. I'm not the best, but it's so much fun when my friends and I play it in P.E.  
 
17. Do you cook? If so, what is your specialty?
G: I cook scrambled eggs for me and Lila every Saturday before practice. I also enjoy baking sweets.
L: I don't cook, but I do bake. I like experimenting with different cookie recipes. I have a really big sweet tooth.
 
18.  If you could have one super power, what would it be?
G: To fly or teleport.
L: To be able to go back in time. I'm always regretting things, so that would let me fix them.
 
19. Greyson, what will you miss most about Lila when she leaves for college?
G: I will miss the comfort of knowing that she is always there if I need someone to talk to. Just having her around the house. And it would be a lie to say that I will not miss her closet and being able to find something to wear.
 
20. Lila, what do you hope for Greyson in the coming years?  
L: I think sometimes Greyson feels like she's in my shadow, and I don't want her to feel that way. She's very smart, and mature for her age, and she has a lot going for her. I just want Greyson to find her own footing and confidence. I want her to be just as excited to for her next steps as I am for mine.