Welborn signs with Catawba College

Elkin High School senior and stand-out swimmer, Sophie Welborn, has signed her National Letter of Intent to swim for Catawba College in Salisbury. Welborn remarked, “My family and I visited six colleges across four different states, each of them had some of the things I was looking for, but none of them felt like home. I chose Catawba because it checked all the boxes that were important to me. Catawba has a young coach that has a record of building upon the previous year’s successes. The team chemistry and energy was amazing and it’s a smaller college that is really close to home. It’s also a bonus that two of my former YMCA TYDE teammates, Marshall Wells and Peyton Ponce de Leon, are also swimming there.” Welborn went on to add, “The one thing my swim coach, Oz Prim, has ingrained in me from an early age is that relationships matter, no matter what you do, it’s always about the relationships. I’ve always been part of a team where everyone is close and it’s like a family. I really got that feeling at Catawba and every alumni I have met used the word family to describe their Catawba experience.”

Welborn began swimming at the tender age of six years old for Elkin Wet Lightning, the local summer swim league team. “I’ll never forget the day my dad told me to get in the car because he was taking me to sign up for the swim team. I cried all the way there because I didn’t want to get up every morning during the summer at 7:30 a.m. to get ready for swim practice. But after I won my very first race I warmed up to the idea pretty quickly,” Welborn said, with a grin. After swimming four seasons for EWL, Welborn signed up to swim for the Winston-Salem based YMCA year-round swim team, TYDE, where she swam until her final year of high school. During her eight year career swimming for TYDE, Welborn qualified for the YMCA National Championship meet during all four years of high school and was a member of the TYDE National team for three years, opting out her senior year to focus on her final year of high school track and field.

Welborn has enjoyed a very successful swim career at Elkin High School. During her freshman year, she swam anchor in a thrilling race to lead her team to its first ever relay state championship in the 200-yard medley relay, the first of three state titles that the team would earn in that event. That same relay team would earn a total of seven state titles over the next two years in the 200-yard medley relay (3), the 200-yard freestyle relay (2), and the 400-yard freestyle relay (2), all anchored by Welborn. Welborn has also experienced individual success out of the water as well, winning All-Conference honors in her individual events all four years. She has also earned All-Region honors a total of 16 times in swimming, finding herself on top of the podium 13 of those times. Welborn has set regional swim records in both the 50-yard and 100-yard freestyle events and the aforementioned relay team also holds the record in the 200-yard medley and the 200-yard and 400-yard freestyle events. Welborn was also awarded All-State honors 16 times over her high school career, making the podium in every event she swam in each state championship meet. Welborn earned silver in the 50-yard freestyle event twice and silver in the 100-yard freestyle event her junior year, where she was out-touched by a mere 0.15 seconds. She also earned 1A Northwest Conference Swimmer of the Year honors twice, in 2022 and again in 2024, as well as the NCHSAA Swimming State Championship Outstanding Sportsmanship Award in 2021. EHS Coach Oz Prim states, “How blessed I’ve been to be Sophie’s coach all these years! She has always demonstrated an awesome attitude and tremendous work ethic which made our team so much better. But it’s her faith and love of others which we will all remember, as she has touched the lives of so many individuals.”

Welborn was also a remarkable athlete in sports outside of the pool, during her four years at EHS. She was a member of the JV volleyball team, the shooting team, indoor and outdoor track & field and cross country running. Welborn earned another state championship with the 4x400 relay team in 2022 and was state runner-up in the same event in 2023, giving her the distinction of being a multi-sport state champion. In total, Welborn has earned All-Conference honors across four sports a total of 24 times, 16 times for swimming, five for outdoor track, two for indoor track, and one in cross country. Even more impressively, Welborn was able to compete in four varsity sports during her senior year and earned All-Conference honors in cross country, swimming, indoor track and outdoor track, all in the same year. All four of her teams were able to win a conference title and advance all the way to the NCHSAA state championship, with the last team, track & field, heading to the state championship meet on May 18. This past February, while competing in two varsity sports simultaneously, Welborn competed in the NCHSAA state championships for both sports, swimming and indoor track, within a span of 24 hours, reaching the podium four times for swim and once for indoor track, earning silver medals in both sports. Welborn was also named this year’s North Carolina Heisman scholarship winner, which, according to their website, is an honor bestowed each year to the “most accomplished, community-minded high school senior athletes.” Welborn is the first ever winner of this prestigious award from Elkin High School.

A well-rounded student, Welborn has excelled in the classroom and her GPA has placed her in the top 10% of her graduating class. She has been involved with FCCLA (Family, Career and Community Leaders of America), serving as chapter president and has also been active with the EHS Beta club, where she served as club Reporter and has competed all four years at the Beta state convention and three years at the national convention. Welborn is also a member of the National Honor Society, serving as Vice President and has served on her school’s Student Council all four years. Welborn hopes to continue her academic success at Catawba and pursue a pre-med related degree with the goal to either become a Physician’s Assistant or to continue on to medical school. “My dream would be to one day return to Elkin and work in a practice alongside my brother, Brandon, who is graduating medical school this May and entering his residency at UNC-Chapel Hill as a neurologist,” asserts Welborn.