The highly decorated Clovis West Eagle entered the summer of her senior year on cruise control. That is until one fateful night Memorial Day Weekend.
McKenna's father, Jason Fife said, "It's a parent's worst nightmare when you get a call at 1 o'clock in the morning from the Highway Patrol. They're saying they're taking your daughter to hospital and she's been involved in a severe car accident."
The horrible accident left McKenna with a fractured C-1 vertebrae. She was forced to wear a neck brace and doctors told McKenna she could not swim or play water polo for about eight months.
That would have meant missing half of her senior year. But six weeks later at a checkup, good news arrived. She would be allowed in the pool as long as she kept her C-Collar on. Perfect news in August just in time water polo season.
"I was ecstatic. I was in the pool the next day when I got my neck brace off and that was really scary at first. But I kept working and eventually we got up to where we needed to be and we won our valley championships," said McKenna.
McKenna suffered another physical setback in December but recovered from that too and once again became one of the Valley's elite swimmers.
Now McKenna Fife is on her way to swim at Brigham Young University on a scholarship after signing her national letter of intent back in April.
"Ohh my gosh, it was scary because I'm committing and it's just you can't go back now. So it was just so exciting. I know I want to go there and it's where I want to go. So I'm excited. Very excited," added McKenna.
"We're very excited. It's always been a dream of hers to be able to compete at the collegiate level. And so, we've always geared her since she was 6 years old of ours you know, swim, swim, swim," said Jason Fife.
And perhaps no one is more proud of McKenna than her parents and family who have been there every stroke of the way.
