Finding a swimming standout that’s a multi-sport athlete is as rare as a blue moon these days; finding one that’s local is even more rare. However, Shaler Area senior Noah Lang is part of this rare company, in part to exceeding expectations.
Lang initially got into swimming at a very young age. Not with typical summer days being spent at a local swimming pool, but instead at a closer, more homey environment.
“My grandma has a pool, and over the summers I would spend a lot of time there, hours at a time, really only getting out to eat. So it was a comforting place for me to be when I was a lot younger,” Lang said.
From there, he joined the club team for Shaler starting in elementary school, but he was also playing baseball at the time.
Lang played baseball for Shaler, including the tournament team from elementary school all the way through middle school. However, during his middle school years he came to a realization.
“I enjoyed pitching, but I wasn’t really good at anything else other than pitching at that time. So around the end of middle school I kind of wanted to choose one sport to kind of put a lot of the focus on, and eventually swimming took that place,” Lang said.
Despite prioritizing swimming over other endeavors, Noah stayed involved with school activities, including a childhood favorite.
“I joined bowling because it’s a big sport in my family, despite me actually being one of the worst bowlers in my family. We have a lot of bowlers, but it was also a sport that was very mental. Bowling is not the most physically demanding, so when I needed to take my mind off of swimming, bowling was a really, really good way to avoid burnout in swimming,” he said.
Despite being involved in all these sports, swimming became a priority for Lang at the start of high school – So much so that he switched to virtual learning to pursue his dream.
“I remember sophomore year I was balancing clubs, swimming, varsity swimming, and it started to become too much. Come the month of March, there’s Whitfield Championships, state championships, and we’re traveling a lot, so I did it just for the sake of making learning easier, but also because my grades definitely fell off that third quarter of sophomore year. I was so far behind on everything and it was a lot to take on at once.”
Upon prioritizing swimming, Lang started to see the results he was hoping for – he ranks 58th in the WPIAL 95th in the state.
“Lots of practice contributed to that success,” he said. “I have to give credit to both my club team and the varsity team. Just a lot of the grind put in the work stuff is what contributed to the ranking,” Lang said.
This success was recognized by some colleges, including the likes of Cleveland State, where Lang decided would be the best place for him.
“I’ve gotten way closer than I thought I would get [with Cleveland St]. With a lot of the coaches and swimmers, the culture and the swimmer dynamic is really neat because all the coaches are in on the inside jokes within that team. There’s no intimidation factor with the coaches. They’re very chill, laid back people, but they’re also still competitive. They’re still Division one college coaches and are going to make you work, and somehow they’ve struck that perfect balance.”
Lang, despite not being a part of the team just yet, is already setting his sights on some personal records he wants to achieve once he arrives at Cleveland St.
“There’s a very good chance I will be top eight in the mile, but hopefully in the next year or two, I start to get closer to that Cleveland State record. More of a longer term stretch goal is to hopefully make an NCAA blaze and just be in the mix there. So, I just want to try and make NCAA plays at some point in my college career – I think that would be a huge achievement for me personally.”
Noah will look to make a name for himself this upcoming 2025-26 year with Cleveland St, and look to channel his inner Bobby Finke and Florian Wellbrock (his idols) to have the success he’s aspiring to achieve.
“It was just a really cool team dynamic and it’s a very welcoming environment. Regardless of all of the recruiting stuff, I’m so happy my mom made me email Cleveland State because that was definitely the best fit for me,” Lang said.
