Long before Adalynn Biegler beat her own Class 1A girls swimming state record on Nov. 15, her mom and coach, Stacy, knew the Monticello High School junior was meant to be in a pool.

Biegler was just a toddler when, on a family trip to Bunker Beach Water Park, she chose to swim laps instead of coasting down the water slides.

“I kept telling her, ‘Don’t you want to go up on the slides?’ and she just swam back and forth,” said Stacy, a former Elk River High School and University of North Dakota swimmer. “I’m like, ‘Oh my goodness, you’re going to be a swimmer.’ ”

It wasn’t a surprise then when the same kid who had eyes only for water — she began waterskiing at 2½ years old — took up the sport. At 5, Biegler plunged into the St. Michael’s Sea Devils’ pool after her older sister and now-University of Wisconsin-La Crosse swimmer, McKenna, did the same.

Adalynn Biegler hasn’t left the deep end since. She is the All-Minnesota Girls Swimmer of the Year for the second time.

On an unseasonably warm Saturday in mid-November, Biegler set a goal: beat her own state record. Even as nerves sank in, she was in her element.

“Meets are my favorite part,” Biegler said. “The competitiveness of it. … State was so fun.”

She did exactly what she set out to do. After the junior completed her usual routine of doing jumping jacks and twisting her arms side to side, she dove into the pool, surpassing her own 200-yard freestyle record with a time of 1 minute, 46.93 seconds at the Jean K. Freeman Aquatic Center at the University of Minnesota.

Biegler brought Monticello its first state title with one other win: a 53.48 time in the 100 butterfly. The school, which finished third last year, won two other events: the 200 freestyle and 400 freestyle relays. Biegler previously set the state benchmark for the 50 freestyle and 100 freestyle.

But even with the state title clinched, the stopwatch never really halts. Biegler swims six days a week for two hours each day. In the Monticello offseason, she outpaced her own state records with a 50 free that was .11 seconds quicker than her 22.38 time and a .23-second advantage over her 49.20 time in the 100 free.

The soft-spoken teen, who spoke to Strib Varsity on the drive from Monticello to Edina for swim club practice, still manages to find time for a break on solid ground (or at least ice), whether it’s hanging out with friends on a weekend off or heading up north to ice fish. Her sights, however, are set firmly on the future.

In October, Biegler committed to the University of Tennessee, which finished fifth in the 2025 NCAA swimming and diving championships. She fell just shy of qualifying for the 2028 Olympic trials.

As her strokes continue to break the glassy surface in a practiced rhythm, the 2028 Olympics loom.

“It will always be a goal of mine until I achieve it,” Biegler said.