It didn’t take long for Brentwood’s Fawn Brendel to break her own school record.
Last year, at a home meet against Thomas Jefferson in February, Brendel eclipsed Anna Watterson’s school record in the girls 100-yard butterfly event set in 2010. Brendel swam a 1:07.55 and narrowly missed the WPIAL qualifying time by five hundredths of a second.
On Dec. 3, at the team’s 2025-26 season opener versus Woodland Hills, Brendel broke her own record with a time of 1:06.57 and qualified for WPIALs for the first time.
“I am proud of myself because breaking my record is proof that I keep improving,” Brendel said. “But I am looking at the bigger picture so just breaking my record isn’t the end. I plan to improve enough to get under a minute in the 100 fly by the end of my senior season. So each record is another step towards my goal.
“I tend to work on the big picture. To get under a minute is my long-term goal, but my short-term goal ties more to my other individual event, the 200 IM. I hope to break our school record for that event by the end of my senior season, as well. But before that, I want to drop my split for the 50 breast portion of the event to under 45 seconds.”
The 5-foot-10 Brendel also competes in relay events at meets for the Spartans.
“Fawn is extremely hard working and one of the humblest athletes I have ever known,” Brentwood coach Maggie Davis said. “She is a fierce competitor that will always show good sportsmanship. I have known Fawn since the seventh grade when I was her science teacher and middle school swim coach.
“Last year, when she broke the 100 fly record for the first time, it was the most exciting moment that brought chills to me as she was coming into the wall. She told me at the beginning of that season she wanted to break a record and qualify for the WPIAL meet. She broke the record and missed qualifying by 0.05 (seconds), but that didn’t stop Fawn from reaching her goal.”
Brendel, 17, sets goals and works tirelessly to achieve them. She shattered her own school record in the 100 butterfly in December with a 1:05.57 time against South Park. She since has lowered it to 1:04.79.
“Fawn is always striving to be better,” Davis said, “so once she checked rebreaking her record and qualifying off her list, the next thing she tells me is, ‘OK, now I need to get my time even lower before February.’ She continued to swim for her club team and attended swim camp in the summer.
“At the start of this season, she assured me she would qualify and drop her record some more. Sure enough, she did it. Fawn is dynamic in the water and so fun to watch succeed. Her smile when she finished that race said it all about how happy she was. Fawn sets goals, wants to make training plans to achieve them and gets after it. I know she will continue to do that, and I can’t wait to see what other goals I can help her achieve before the end of this season.”
Brendel is a diverse swimmer who also competes in the 50 freestyle, 200 medley relay and 200 freestyle relay.
“Fawn is a sprinter who can swim any stroke,” Davis said. “She leads by example and is the humblest athlete. She deserves all the recognition for her hard work.”
Brendel is the oldest of four children in her family. She started swimming in seventh grade and was named the most outstanding athlete on the Brentwood girls team as a freshman and sophomore. She shared the honor with Karina Pfeil last year.
“Surprisingly enough, although I love swimming the butterfly now, I used to hate the stroke in middle school,” Brendel said. “I thought the kick was so difficult that I used to refuse to swim it until my Baldwin Swim Club coach made me swim the 50 fly at a meet and I placed seventh in my age group.”
Brendel also competes for the girls volleyball program at Brentwood, along with the Baldwin Swim Club, Baldwin Recreation Soccer and Kokoro Club Volleyball.
“I have loved swimming ever since I took Baldwin Swim Club lessons at the Baldwin Swim Club,” she said, “where I was apparently something of a doggy paddle prodigy and got moved to the deep end on my first day.
“I have continued to love to swim ever since, especially because I tend to be far more coordinated in water than on land.”
Brendel owns a blistering 4.606 GPA and is the junior class treasurer and a National Honor Society member and is active in student council. She is involved in the debate, drama (fall play), multicultural and German clubs, VEX Robotics, the Chain Reaction Team and was on last year’s F1 Team.
She is a student-athlete in the truest sense of the term and plans to attend a four-year college for either mechanical or software engineering. She also is hoping to maintain her swimming career at the next level.
“I know Fawn would love to swim in college,” said Davis, Brentwood’s fourth-year head coach, “so I want to help her navigate that process.”
Davis is a Jeannette graduate who went on to swim at Westminster College. The Titans won the PAC championship in 2019, and Davis reeled in three individual titles.
“I graduated college in 2020 and started working at Brentwood the same year,” Davis said. “My coaching philosophy is to teach my swimmers the fundamentals of competitive swimming while teaching life lessons in teamwork, resiliency and accountability. I want to empower swimmers to become more confident in their competitive abilities and support them in their goals for individual growth while (also) having fun.
“Growing up in the swimming world, my parents always asked me two very important questions: Did I do my best? And did I have fun? Both encouraged me to swim competitively from age 6 until 21, and I hope my swimmers feel that same support through my coaching style.”
Brendel has been joined on Brentwood’s girls team this year by her younger sister Kaia, a freshman; along with senior Ainsley Kraeuter, junior Ryleigh Cranmer, sophomores Skylee Dias and Taylor Boyd and freshmen Ava Patterson and Tommie Sheets.
“We have a lot of growth happening on our team,” Brendel said. “Every meet, I see at least one person setting a new personal record. I think this year’s freshmen are very talented. Some of them never swam before this year, but you really wouldn’t be able to tell with how well they are performing.
“Everyone on both teams works very hard, and it shows in their performance.”
There are nine swimmers on the boys team: Braden Bakowski and Connor Dusch, both seniors; Brian Corea, a junior; along with sophomores Andrew Cramer and Zackary Ciccanti and freshmen Donald Minard, Edward Jarasiewicz, Emmett Kail and Jesiah Carson.
“Every year, I expect my swimmers to be good teammates, good competitors, swim personal best times and make memories with their teammates,” Davis said. “One day, they won’t remember their best times, but they will remember how swimming made them feel. And I want it to always be a positive experience.
“Every coach wants to have athletes that are winning and breaking records, but my hope is that at the end of the season, they can look at all the hard work they did and be proud of their accomplishments and smile at the fun memories they made with their teammates.”