Summer time

With parents who were collegiate swimmers and who still enjoy the pool and ocean, it’s little wonder that Summer Harrison was — and is — a water baby.

But when Harrison first asked her father to time her swimming across the family pool, Sean and wife Shannon had the same thought: “Uh-oh.”

The parents knew all too well the hours put in and sacrifices made by competitive swimmers. From six-day-a-week practices, sometimes starting at 5 a.m., to missing social events due to swim meets, reaching the elite level was just plain hard.

But there was time to change their daughter’s mind. Dance. Soccer. Tennis. Piano. Diving. Softball.

All enjoyable but not her passion. Not her DNA.

Twelve years after asking to be timed, 16-year-old Summer Harrison is headed to Omaha, Neb., and June’s U.S. Olympic Team Trials. The Mid-Pacific Institute sophomore finished third in the 100-meter butterfly at the USA Swimming Sectionals this month in Federal Way, Wash.

Harrison touched the wall in 1 minute and 1.25 seconds, 0.74 seconds better than the trials qualifying time.

“I was stoked,” Harrison said. “I knew what time I needed and when I looked up (at the scoreboard) and saw 1:01.25, it was, ‘Yes. I made it!’

“This is what I’ve wanted ever since I was a little kid, to make the Olympic Trials. This will be a great experience.”

Seeded 80th out of 144 trialists, Harrison has realistic expectations. Only the top two finishers make the U.S. team. This summer’s Olympics in London may be out of reach, but not 2016 in Rio de Janeiro.

“Teenagers have made (the U.S. team) before, but I know I’m young,” she said. “I’m going to go for it. It’s going to be a cool experience.

“And I couldn’t have done it without my parents. They took me to all the practices, everywhere I had to go, even early mornings. I’m so thankful for them.”

Sean and Shannon Harrison are not surprised with their daughter’s success. Summer has been representing Hawaii in national age-group competitions since she was 9; she holds numerous state individual and relay age-group club marks; and she is the two-time defending state high school champion in the 100 freestyle.

“When your child has a dream and you’ve seen what they’ve given up to achieve it, you’re thankful,” Shannon Harrison said. “All the sacrifices make sense.

“It’s not that we didn’t want her to be a swimmer. It’s that we knew what all was involved. We put her in different activities and she was good at them, but she had the knack for swimming. You see it when someone has the passion.”

The Harrisons met while on the swim team at Long Beach State. Shannon’s speciality was backstroke, Sean’s the butterfly.

“My friends from high school are all reminding me that I didn’t qualify for the trials,” Sean said. “I made it to the finals at nationals, not the trials. That’s elite.

“She’ll be a baby there, with probably a handful of kids her age in her event. She’ll get to see how fast she needs to be and she’ll get the experience.”

The butterfly is considered the most difficult of the competitive strokes. Summer, who also swims for Kamehameha Swim Club, considers it the easiest.

“I picked it up easily and have loved it since I was 10,” she said. “I tried a lot of different sports, but swimming stuck.”

That competitive mind-set came early. There is video from her first ‘time trial’ at age 4.

“When she finished, she said, ‘Daddy, time me again. See if I can go faster,’ ” Shannon said.

If not in June, then beginning with next year’s state high school championship meet.

Last month, the five-member Mid-Pac girls swim team was tied for the team title with perennial power Punahou going into the final event, the 400 free relay. Harrison was out-touched on the final leg by Buffanblu’s Jasmine Mau, giving Punahou its 47th championship.

“We only had five girls, so second was pretty good,” Harrison said. “But we want to win states. No more of this second-place business.”