Canyon High senior swimmer Jordan Krestul knows how to juggle academics, spending time with friends and family and giving back the community — something for which he was recently recognized.
On May 23, Krestul was given a national honor, in fact, as one of nine distinguished finalists for California in the 2019 Prudential Spirit of Community Award, as well as being awarded the Tim Renolds Scholarship.
Taking over for his older sister in the fall, ahead of his senior year, Krestul gives back to the community through Code Read, a nonprofit that provides books for free to kids in low-income communities. The goal is to increase literacy rates by providing children free books through grants and donations.
“It means a lot to me because so many people applied for this, and so few get it; and it just shows how much work I’ve put into Code Read, and that the work is paying off,” Krestul said. “We host book fairs at local elementary schools to deliver the books to these kids. They get to come in and pick out any books they want out of our selection, which we are quite proud of because we have thousands of books to offer them. We also have a very good satisfaction rate with these kids and they are all usually extremely excited to receive these books.”
All the while, Krestul still managed to make an impact on the Cowboys boys swim team, after earning the label as as one of the fastest swimmers on the team.
Swimming in the 200-yard freestyle relay team and the 200-yard medley relay team, along with the 100-yard backstroke and 500-yard freestyle throughout the Foothill League season, Krestul was an impact swimmer for Canyon, and it showed.
Once Foothill League finals were over, Krestul joined his teammates in the 200-yard freestyle and 200-yard medley relay team at CIF-Southern Section Division 1 Prelims in Riverside in May. He also qualified to race in individual 100-yard backstroke creating some memorable moments with his team.
“My favorite part of the season was going to CIF with my relay teams,” Krestul said. “It was a great experience and it was the fastest our relay has ever gone, so I have no bad memories from it. Just the teamwork and brotherhood that we had at CIF was just amazing.”
Krestul’s next stop after graduation is to head of to the University of California, Los Angeles to study biology.
Krestul’s goals include attending medical school to become an anesthesiologist; but he remains adamant that he’ll continue to play role in the future of Code Read.
In fact, Krestul said his younger sister is getting ready to take over in the fall.
