FRIENDSWOOD
Senior KK LeBlanc may have swam her last race in Lady Mustangs blue, but her name won’t be forgotten at the Friendswood High School natatorium — it’s quite literally covering the school record board hovering near the pool.
“I’d say my mentality is what has gotten me the furthest,” said LeBlanc, who began swimming competitively since age 10, and gradually built up her competitiveness in the sport. “It’s a very mental sport.”
To get there, LeBlanc puts in plenty of work at her craft, practicing Monday through Saturday for more than two hours each day in the pool, plus dry-land workouts.
“Yardage-wise, I’d say on average it’s 7,000 yards in a practice, so 42,000 yards a week,” LeBlanc said.
In the Lady Mustangs’ swimming program’s history, LeBlanc owns the school-record fastest times in seven of the eight individual races, and is also part of the four-swimmer team that has Friendswood’s best performance in the 200-meter freestyle relay. All but one — the 500-meter free, set her junior year — of LeBlanc’s school records were set this season.
“The best thing about her is she makes it look effortless,” Friendswood head swimming coach Craig Sikkema said. “She’s so smooth. She’s just unbelievable.”
LeBlanc also will have seven total state championship gold medals to remember her high school career by. LeBlanc three-peated as state champion in the girls 100-meter freestyle her sophomore through senior seasons, won the 200-meter freestyle state titles in back-to-back years her junior and senior seasons, and she was a part of Friendswood’s state champion 200-meter freestyle relay teams in both her freshman and senior years.
LeBlanc’s name also appears in the state record books with a record-breaking Class 5A swim in the 200-meter freestyle, and she was named the athlete of the meet for the 2025 Class 5A state contest.
LeBlanc noted the team aspect of the 200-meter relay made it her favorite race, while admitting to having a bit of a love-hate relationship with the race she has excelled most at, the 200-meter freestyle.
Other accolades LeBlanc has collected include regional athlete of the meet three times (2023-25) and district athlete of the meet four times (2022-25), and she has earned All-American status 13 times across the 50-meter freestyle, 100-meter freestyle, 200-meter freestyle, 100-meter backstroke, 100-meter butterfly and 200-meter individual medley races.
“She is going to go onto greatness,” Sikkema said. “I have no doubt that within the next couple years you’ll see her in the Olympics or something like that, because I know when she sets her heart and mind to something, there’s no holding her back. She’s self-driven, self-motivated.”
Moving forward, LeBlanc soon will start her collegiate career swimming for the Ohio State Buckeyes.
“One of the things I was looking at most when I was trying to pick a college was having a team with great team chemistry,” LeBlanc said. “That’s why I loved Friendswood so much, and why I liked high school compared to club so much. You get up and cheer for every single meet.”