{"id":468265,"date":"2021-04-06T10:10:01","date_gmt":"2021-04-06T17:10:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=468265"},"modified":"2021-04-06T10:10:01","modified_gmt":"2021-04-06T17:10:01","slug":"a-swimming-family-meet-the-six-sweeney-siblings-to-swim-at-power-5-college-programs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/a-swimming-family-meet-the-six-sweeney-siblings-to-swim-at-power-5-college-programs\/","title":{"rendered":"A Swimming Family: Meet the Six Sweeney Siblings to Swim at Power 5 College Programs"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Sweeney family car would pull up to the pool for the afternoon, and the carousel would start spinning.<\/p>\n

Out went the older kids, Allyson and Conor and Aidan, to practice. While they swam, the younger kids sat in the car with mom Patty, doing homework or eating dinner, until it was their turn to practice. Then the whole operation would rotate, swimsuits on for the younger group, textbooks and snacks in hand for the older kids, the car like a Russian nesting doll that would keep disgorging smaller and smaller Sweeneys. Whether it was learn-to-swim classes or high school practice, the basic choreography stayed the same for more than a decade, through seven siblings.<\/p>\n

\u201cI literally grew up around the pool,\u201d Tegan Sweeney said. \u201cThat was my playground, that\u2019s where I learned how to read, where I did all my schoolwork. All the big milestones of my life have been around the pool.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Tegan

Tegan Sweeney, left, and Devan Sweeney at the 2017 GHSA state meet with Brookwood High; Photo Courtesy: Sweeney Family<\/p><\/div>\n

The Sweeneys have made the pool their playground on the way to distinguished careers. The youngest, Reagan, is about to graduate from Brookwood High School in suburban Atlanta. She\u2019s the seventh Sweeney to contribute to that school\u2019s powerhouse program. The LSU signe<\/a>e is also the sixth member of the family to swim for a major college program, stretching back to when the oldest, Allyson, enrolled at Texas A&M in 2009. It\u2019s come full circle to the point of Allyson being an assistant coach at the University of North Carolina<\/a>, having the chance to coach against her siblings.<\/p>\n

Through their upbringing, swimming was a common ground to connect across the span of years.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was swimming and going to meets, they were the kids that were running around up in the stands or at championship meets, they\u2019d be running around in the rafters and you\u2019d hear on the PA, \u2018Mrs. Sweeney, can you come get your kids?\u2019,\u201d Allyson said. \u201cAnd a lot of teammates that I swam with at Texas A&M, they remember my younger sisters.\u201d<\/p>\n

The birth of a swimming family<\/h4>\n

The full sweep of the Sweeney family is a lot to track. It includes several moves across the country in their youth, following the career of their father John Sweeney<\/strong>, the chair of surgery at Emory University\u2019s School of Medicine<\/a>. But here goes:<\/p>\n