Panthers’ Keil commits to Mizzou

Panthers Keil commits to Mizzou

Chloe Brown

Senior Megan Keil made a non-binding oral commitment to swim at the University of Missouri.

“It seems like it’s all I do sometimes,” Keil said of swimming. “My best friends do it, too, and it’s a lot of fun.”  

Keil, the defending Class 6A champion in the 50- and 100-yard freestyle, has a passion for swimming that shines through her accomplishments.

Even though she has many, she considers placing seventh in the 50 freestyle at junior nationals to be her biggest one.

“People come from everywhere to compete there,” she said. “It was a whole new experience. It was different than any meet I had ever been to. There, everyone is so fast, everyone is good. Everything is so professional.”

Although Keil is excited to continue her swimming career at Mizzou, she did not always know where she would go to college.

“Freshman year seems like forever ago,” Keil said. “I always knew at that point that I wanted to swim in college, but I didn’t know which colleges were good or which teams were good.”

She had visited Mizzou for swim meets before her most recent campus visit.

“I had a swim meet there in the summer and since we were going, my parents made me take a campus tour,” Keil said. “They thought it was a good thing for me to do and at the time, I was like ‘oh mom, I’m not going to go here.’”

Schools with an “on the rise” swim team were a top priority for Keil, along with a good business program, which she plans on pursuing as her major.

“I looked at a lot of different schools and then I narrowed it down to five and after I had taken all of (my visits), I was kind of reflecting on each one.”

Mizzou stuck out to Keil.

“I had fun on all of my visits. I liked them all, but I just felt like it was a good match,” Keil said. “I really like the team and I had a lot of fun on the visits there and the coaches are really nice. It’s just a good environment all around. Those are the people I wanted to surround myself with overall.”

Keil was quickly welcomed into her new swim family.

“It’s all so exciting because right after I committed, I met some of the team members before and some of the people on my team had already committed there, I got added onto the group chat,” Keil said. “It seems like such a long ways away, but I’m sure it’ll go by fast.”

Her family has been key in navigating her lifetime of swimming.

“Thank you to my family — my parents and especially my grandparents because they drove to practice every day for year and I don’t know what I would’ve done without them and they helped me with every aspect of swimming,” Keil said. “And thank you to my coaches. They’re amazing.”