Skip to main content

Engineered for speed: Alons pairs passions for healthcare engineering and swimming

Photo: NC State Athletics

When College of Engineering third-year student Kylee Alons and her teammates finished their 400-yard medley relay on day two of the 2021 NCAA Championships in Greensboro, NC, they made history. Their winning relay is the Wolfpack’s first-ever swimming national title, and with a time of 3:24.59, they set new NCAA and U.S. Open records. The team overall finished as the runner-up at the 2021 national meet with two relay titles and three individual titles, securing the program’s best NCAA Championships finish.

As an industrial engineering major with a concentration in health systems engineering, how does Alons balance a rigorous major with her swimming? She credits skillful time management and the incredible NC State support staff with her success.

Originally from Fort Collins, Colo., Alons’ main draw to NC State was the reputation of the swimming program. As a sprint freestyle and butterfly swimmer, she wanted to join a highly ranked Division I swim program, and NC State fit the bill.

“I think the swimming was a little bit higher priority in high school when I was looking at schools,” Alons said. “I also was interested in engineering…and I was really pleased when I knew that (NC State) had a really good engineering program.” After a recruiting visit and meeting with the team, she knew NC State was a clear choice. “It seemed to fit all of the things I was interested in.”

Engineering can be a really time-consuming major and a lot of work, but Alons said the support staff, such as her coaches and academic coordinator, have helped her manage the workload, especially when she’s feeling overwhelmed. “I’m not perfect at it, I still get behind, but I think one thing I’ve learned is…knowing how to schedule your week,” she said. “All the practices, the four hours a day I have to swim, but I also have three hours of Zoom classes and three or four hours of homework on a bad day.”

Sometimes, she has to sacrifice social outings for homework, but for Alons, school is a priority. “If I have an issue where I need to study for a final and I can’t make a workout, I will always communicate with my coaches and they’ve always helped me in those situations…they know I can make up a practice at a different time in the week. Just telling them that I have this concern has really helped me.”

According to Alons, the easiest part about the engineering program is learning about things that interest her. She is currently working on her senior design project with the dermatology unit at the Durham VA Hospital. “It’s easy for me to set time aside for things that are related to what I want to do. I want to work with hospitals, I want to help make processes more efficient,” she said of the project.

After graduation with her B.S. this fall, Alons plans to head straight into her masters’ program, also in industrial engineering at NC State. She doesn’t know exactly what she’d like to do with her degree, but her interest lies in clinical research and projects with hospitals.

Alons likes to stay busy, so in what little spare time she does have, she enjoys photography. During high school, she ran a small gig taking senior portraits for her friends and mutual connections and would love to get that business up and running again. Her other love is hiking. “I’m a Colorado gal,” she explained, though she hasn’t had a lot of chances to explore the North Carolina trails.

Most recently, Alons was named to the All-ACC Swimming and Diving Academic Team for the third time. Academic requirements for All-ACC selection are a 3.0 GPA for the previous semester and a 3.0 cumulative GPA during one’s academic career for undergraduate students. Throughout her career, Alons has earned 20 All-America honors, two CSCAA Scholar All-American honors, five ACC Championships and two 2021 NCAA Championships.