Heights (MD) Standout Swimmer Matthew Rose Commits to Purdue.

Rose with his coaches, Liotta, James, Royals, and Lively on signing day.

On November 13, Heights School (MD) senior Matthew Rose, one of the best swimmers in the country, officially committed to Purdue University, an excellent school which boasts a powerhouse swimming program in the Big Ten Conference. Rose’s parents, his sixth-grade brother Andrew, coaches Dr. Robert Liotta, Sean Franck and many others were in attendance to witness this historic event. The Heights, a top academic private school in Maryland, is generally known more for sending students to top universities to pursue academic goals. Thus, whenever a stellar athlete comes through the school and excels in both areas, people from around the interconnected DMV area feed into the buzz.

Rose’s swimming career can be defined in this moment: The 200m is typically seen as the hardest event in high school swimming. With a WCAC championship at stake, the coaches called on their senior Captain to put the team on his back, and he answered the call. Placed in the anchor position on a stacked lineup, the Cavs were behind by a half-second when he went in. He managed to catch Gonzaga’s swimmer on the last 25m in a clutch winning effort, which was the first time The Heights ever beat Gonzaga in a relay. Five minutes later, he had a big race in the 200m free, which he was down at the 150m mark, then came back in the last 50m and beat the top Dematha and Gonzaga guys to win the race. The Cavs went on to win the 200 IM after that, “all of which were crazy races,” said Rose.

“A leader of men who is always the first one in, last guy out and always pushing his teammates to be better than the day before,” said Co-senior Captain Ryan Franck at Rose’s signing day. Rose not only works hard in the pool, but excels in the classroom as well, and he will continue doing so at Purdue, where he earned an offer for both his academic and athletic achievements. One of the better swimmers to come out of the competitive area that is the DMV, Rose has made a name for himself in the water. During his career, he has been undefeated in Individual Duel Races, a 3 time WCAC Gold Medalist, 3 time WCAC Silver Medalist,  2 time First Team All-WCAC, 2 time Second Team All-WCAC, WMPSSDL All-League, 2 time WMPSSDL Silver Medalist, a 2 time All-Met Honorable Mention, and the most points scored in a Heights Swimming program that has boasted masses of talent over the years. Out of all of these, he would still say his greatest achievement of his high school career would be avoiding the scrutiny of Assistant Headmaster Mr. Tom Royals for 4 years simply by being a swimmer. Rose also practices with some of the best the world has to offer, practicing with Olympic Gold Medalist swimmer and fellow DMVer Torri Huske multiple times over the last year. As earlier mentioned, Rose still manages to put academics first, writing a Jackson Scholar Thesis, which is a class only offered to senior students with GPAs of 3.95 or higher, on “The Effect of Smart Technology and Media on Generation Z’s Parental Relationships,” and is looking to pursue an engineering career after he hangs up swimming.