Free State senior swimmer Chloe Portela signed a national letter of intent to swim at the University of Minnesota on Wednesday during a gathering at Free State High.

Throughout the last decade of her life, swimming has taken Free State High senior Chloe Portela to a lot of wonderful places.

From swimming nationally for her father’s native Puerto Rico to winning the Class 6A state title as a sophomore with the Firebirds, several of Portela’s most memorable moments have come in the water.

However, Wednesday at FSHS, Portela put her swim cap and goggles to the side long enough to sign a national letter of intent to spend her college years swimming at the University of Minnesota.

“There’s a lot of things. I’ve been swimming for 10 years now,” said Portela, asked what for her favorite memory. “But probably the biggest was swimming nationally for Puerto Rico. Last year, I went to the Central American games, and that was probably the biggest one. It was a lot of fun. I got to swim with a lot of Olympians and big names.”

Around here, Portela’s name is as big as it gets in the swimming community. Since her freshman year at Free State, Portela’s versatility has been a big-time factor on a perennial state contender. Her success in the pool opened up a world of opportunities, not the least of which was her lengthy and exhausting recruitment, which drew interest from across the country and took her to several different colleges and universities.

In the end, Portela chose the Golden Gophers over Iowa and Wisconsin. Now that she has signed on the dotted line and the ink is dry, she’s looking forward to one more run at state with the Firebirds and a bright future.

“I’m very excited. I can’t wait,” she said. “It feels good to have my decision out of the way so I can focus on my year of swimming and hopefully be a big prospect next year.”

Portela became the third FSHS female swimmer to sign with a Div. I school in the past two seasons. Last year, Morgan Flannigan (Nebraska) and Heather Clark (Kansas) also inked with major-college programs.