Nine-time All-American Jenna Walters ’07 left her name all over the Franklin & Marshall record books following a decorated career with the women’s swimming team. While her signature events were the 200 and 500 freestyle races, Walters was a great freestyle swimmer in both the sprints and distance events as well. She made a name for herself at the conference level and at the national championships by winning both the 200 and 500 freestyle events at the Centennial Conference Championships during each of her four seasons. In doing so, Walters was the first women’s swimmer in conference history to win those events in four straight seasons. To this day, her feat of four consecutive conference championships in the 200 freestyle is unmatched by any who have followed in nearly 20 years. Her feat of four straight titles in the 500 freestyle has been matched just one other time in conference history.
Walters’ success transcended the conference championship and carried her all the way to the highest levels of Division III, where she was a four-time All-American in both of those events for eight of her nine All-America performances. Her highest place at the national championships came during a third-place finish at the 2006 national championships. That same season, she earned a fifth-place finish in the 500 freestyle and capped a memorable national championship meet by earning All-America recognition with a ninth-place showing in the 100 freestyle. That All-American finish in the 100 freestyle was just another example of her freestyle prowess regardless of the distance that she had to swim to beat her competition.
When team points were at a premium during championship season, Walters was a Centennial Conference Champion in the 100 freestyle during the 2004 and 2005 seasons. Those points proved crucial and helped put the Diplomats over the top as the program won its first-ever Centennial Conference Team Championships in school history during the 2004 and 2005 campaigns. As a senior, Walters displayed her distance dominance with another conference title in the 1650 freestyle. Those numerous conference championships led Walters to being named the Centennial Conference’s Outstanding Performer of the Championship Meet following both the 2005 and 2007 championships.
The three-time team MVP and 2007 team captain still holds the school record in the 100 freestyle (52.40) and 200 freestyle (1:51.83). While impressive in any sport, holding a swimming record nearly 20 years after graduating is nearly impossible as the swimsuit technology gets better every year and records are seemingly broken on an annual basis. Walters also graduated as the school record holder in the 50 freestyle (24.37), 500 freestyle (4:58.91), 1000 freestyle (10:34.17), and 1650 freestyle (17:38.80). Those performances continue to stand the test of time as Walters ranks eighth, second, third, and fifth in school history for those events to this day. While helping her team to its first-ever conference championship, it seems only fitting that Walters was additionally a member of the record-setting 200 freestyle, 400 freestyle, 800 freestyle, 200 medley, and 400 medley relays throughout her decorated career.
Walters graduated from Franklin & Marshall with a degree in biological foundations, focusing on neuroscience. She was a member of the Benjamin Rush honor society and water polo club during her undergraduate career. Walters furthered her education by graduating from Pennsylvania College of Optometry at Salus University in 2014. She is currently an optometrist at Goepfert Eye Associates and owner of Vision Therapy Center of Hershey, specializing in binocular vision disorders and postconcussion vision rehabilitation.
