Jordan McHorney and Abby Barney: Childhood Friends To Hokie Sisters

Two girls, ages five and six, stand on the edge of the pool anxiously waiting for the whistle gun to sound.  The gun fires.  Splash.  They race fiercely in the 50-yard-freestyle until they reach the opposite wall.  Both look up to see who won, and then immediately look at each other, exchanging big smiles.  Then they climb out of the pool and dry off sharing the same towel.  Inseparable, the two wait on the deck for their next race together.  Now it’s the 50-yard-backstroke.  The gun fires.  Splash.  Again they glide through the water down to the other side, smile at each other, then huddle back into the same towel. 

It was the summer of ’92 and their swim careers were just getting under way.  Fifteen years later, Jordan McHorney and Abby Barney are swimming together for Virginia Tech.  Though the two have grown too big to share the same towel anymore, they still stand together on the edge of the pool awaiting their next race.

The two have been getting wet together ever since they moved into the same neighborhood in Virginia Beach, living only three houses apart.  Their swim careers have taken them from their little local swim team to now competing against the country’s best amateurs in the Atlantic Coast Conference.  Together they have swum over 5,000 miles and broken a national record, but more importantly to them, formed a life-long friendship.

These two, like most youngsters, tried out soccer and basketball, as well as other various youth sports, but always found themselves back in the water, together.  They explain it was the bond they shared that kept them in swimming. 

“If it wasn’t for Abby, I would had quit years ago,” Jordan explains.  Abby says the same rings true for her. 

While they were still Patriots at First Colonial High School, their 200-yard freestyle relay team stunned fans by breaking the national record by over a second.  Their glory was short-lived however, after a measurement of the pool revealed it was a quarter-inch short (or about the size of a cocktail peanut) of the official 25 yards that a nationally certified pool must be.  Teammates and coaches argued over what a quarter-inch difference made when they beat the record by more than a second, but their efforts were in vain and their record taken off the books.  When Jordan and Abby reflect on the incident now, they’re not mad, not even disappointed. 

“I don’t care,” Abby laughs.  “We know we accomplished something special that day, and no one can ever take that away.”  Interestingly, Stephanie Jones, one of the other two girls on that infamous relay team also swims at Virginia Tech now.

Since entering Virginia Tech, Jordan in 2005 and Abby in 2006, they have gone in separate directions swimming.  Jordan is a sprint swimmer, specializing in the freestyle and backstroke.  Abby is a distance swimmer, her specialty being the butterfly.  Just because they don’t race on the same relay team anymore does not mean that they still don’t push each other.

“There’s definitely a dynamic between Abby and Jordan,” says Tech swim team head coach Dr. Ned Skinner.  “You can tell that there’s a camaraderie there.  That they feed off each other.  It seems like whenever one’s having a great meet, the other follows suit.”

Jordan and Abby acknowledge the difference that coming to Blacksburg has made for their swimming.  They reminisce about in high school and before how they were just so naturally fast and everything came easy to them.  Now practices are more structured and more intense.  They started conditioning more, building their upper bodies (you can easily tell by comparing high school pictures to college ones).  Jordan brags how she can bench 100 pounds.  The girls admit it took a lot of effort to acclimate to the collegiate level.

“In the sport of women’s swimming, you do see women not improve,” said Skinner.  “That is not the case at Virginia Tech.  Our women come here and they get better…Jordan and Abby work hard and are getting stronger.  In the weight room and on dry land with medicine balls and stretch cords, along with the agility training we do.  Then they transition it well in the water.”

Swimming at Virginia Tech has taught the girls more than just perfecting their stroke, but also to be as efficient in the water as possible.  They are learning fundamental life lessons, which will amount to success after their time in college is over.

“I manage my time much better now,” Abby says.  “You have so little time because of what a commitment swimming takes up,” says Jordan.  “It forces you to work hard and set goals for yourself.”  They admit it is hard to keep a normal social life.

For now, their futures are looking bright, in and out of the water.  Skinner predicts Abby will leave Tech with the fastest time in the 200-yard butterfly in school history and Jordan has a chance of going to the NCAA finals this year for the backstroke in the 200-Medley relay as well as making the All-American team.  

“We’re really excited about what these gals bring to us,” Skinner boasts.

Jordan and Abby confess they don’t even consider themselves best friends anymore; instead, they call each other sisters.