Until this season, the sophomore had been a swimmer exclusively for the Rochester Swim Club, but he recently decided to give the high school team a try.
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He is no stranger to success in the pool, with a long list of achievements at the club.
“I’ve had a couple of appearances (at the Speedo Junior National Championships),” Joyner said. “I’ve made finals, I’ve been in the top eight, I’ve gotten some medals at junior nationals… I’ve broken some state club swimming records in the 11-12, 13-14 and 15-16 age groups. So yeah, those would be the ones that stand out to me.”
Swim clubs have allowed Joyner to connect with swimmers his own age in the city, including his old friends, Century’s Eli Holmes and Grady Bargfrede, but he felt that joining the Mayo High School swim team could offer him something special.
“Just being able to continue the legacy of good student-athletes at Mayo, just being able to represent my school,” Joyner said, “being able to have a group of peers besides the people in my classes that I can really connect with at school. I think that’s a big reason.”
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He joined the team a few weeks late, while waiting to compete at the Winter Junior Championships through USA Swimming, which took place December 10-13 in Austin, Texas. He finished sixth in the 1,000-yard freestyle, eighth in the 1-mile freestyle, ninth in the 500-yard freestyle, and 13th in the 200-yard freestyle.
High school swimming has been Joyner’s first experience with dual meets, meaning she swims against some of her teammates instead of with them.
“I think the dual meet experience has been really fun,” Joyner said. “Being able to swim against some of my best friends, instead of being on the same team as them, really sparked that competitive spirit in me. High school swimming… you do it for something bigger than yourself. Whereas in club swim, yeah, there are meets where there’s team scores and stuff, but I think being able to represent your school is really cool. It’s a good opportunity.”
Joyner started swimming at age five, thanks to his parents. His mother, a native of Green Bay, Wisconsin, and his father, from Tucson, Arizona, met by swimming in the Rochester Athletic Club pool after moving to the city for work. His younger brother, Ryk, is also an eighth-grade swimmer on the Rochester club.
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“It’s kind of appropriate,” Joyner said of his parents, who are former college athletes. His mother played basketball at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and his father ran track at the University of Arizona.
He played basketball, football and a little bit of soccer growing up, but the pool was always where he felt most comfortable.
“There was something about swimming that I really loved,” Joyner said.
Joyner plans to swim for the Spartans next season as a junior, but is hesitant to swim on the high school team to prioritize achieving his biggest goals yet: swimming in the Olympic Trials for Team USA in 2028.
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“Ever since I saw Michael Phelps (at) his last Olympic Games in Rio 2016, I always wanted to have a hat with the American flag and my name on it,” Joyner said. “So I think being able to represent the United States at an international meet would be fantastic… like the Olympics or the World Championships.”
Your plan to achieve said goal?
“I went to the USA Swimming National Select Camp in Colorado Springs at the Olympic Training Center in October, and one of the things they always told me was ‘ABT’ – Always be playing,” Joyner said. “And so you’re always looking for ways to improve. When you get good at a sport, it’s easy to get too far ahead of yourself and say, ‘Oh, I’m the king of the world, no one can tell me anything I should do better, because I’m the best.’
“But I think, for me, I try to focus on constantly getting new advice, trying new things and also… not making swimming my whole being. I think having an outside life in anything, whether it’s work, school, sports, I think that’s going to be really important too. To not get caught up in everything.”
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Mayo coach Scott Diercks has coached Joyner for a short time, but has come to realize what a great team player he is.
“He trains at a different level than everyone else. We have to change his intervals because he’s a lot faster than a lot of his teammates,” Diercks said. “He’s always willing to swim in whatever event generates the most points for the team, and he also works quite a bit with the younger kids… Every week we have an individual time and he’ll work with the kids on the junior team. He does a great job with that.”
Diercks has experience coaching another swimmer with Olympic dreams: Lourdes graduate Jenny Shaughnessy, who competed in the prelims of the 2008 U.S. Olympic swimming trials.
Joyner also hopes to swim for a top Division I program in college. State college coaches’ recruiting rules can’t reach him until June 15, but his top options right now are Indiana University, UC Berkeley and the University of Texas at Austin.
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Joyner said he wouldn’t be where he is now without the support of his family, teammates and coaches.
“I’ve been very lucky to have good coaches from when I was five years old when I started swimming until now,” Joyner said. “And yeah, I definitely owe it to my family and my coaches.”
Joyner hopes to compete in her first high school state competition next month. Having set group records in the 100 free (Mankato West, Northfield), 200 free (Northfield), 200 individual medley (Mankato West), 500 freestyle (Century), and 100 backstroke (Mankato West, Northfield), as well as team records in the 200 free (1:38.95), 100 free (46.23), and 500 free. (4:27.90), Joyner is on the right track.
“I went last year (to see),” Joyner said of the state meet. “I was blown away by the noise. It was so loud in there, louder than any club meeting or national youth competition I’ve ever been to, and I think at the end of February it’s going to be so loud again, and I think that’s the atmosphere I can really thrive in. And I’m really excited about it.”