South African swimmer calls SDSU experience ‘awesome’

Five years ago, Sianne Downes didn’t even know SDSU existed. Now she is about to get her bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and plans to come back for another year of classes and swimming.

“I don’t think I could have expected at all what I have experienced and achieved,” said Downes, who hails from Edenvale, South Africa, and is headed to the graduation stage with a 3.85 GPA, school and pool records in the 100- and 200-yard backstroke, and plans for a trip to the national Formula car competition at Michigan International Speedway.

“The amount of friends I’ve made who are genuine and kind has been one of the best parts,” Downes said.

Her journey to the United States began with a desire to swim and study in college. “In South Africa it is difficult to compete in a sport and study. You have to choose either path. I knew I wanted to do both. So in my junior year, I contacted a recruiting service,” said Downes, who began club swimming at age 10.

SDSU had a need for a backstroker, Downes’ specialty, and the recruiter knew SDSU swim coach Doug Humphrey.

“I visited SDSU, and it was a good atmosphere. I could see myself being here the next four years, now five,” Downes said with a smile. That conclusion came despite less than inviting conditions. “We visited SDSU (in January 2020) for four or five days. It was the first time I had seen that much snow. My dad and I drove here from Minneapolis. There was a blizzard the day before, and there were still whiteout conditions.”

Finds new family at the pool

But the people ….

“The swim team was so welcoming. The coaches uphold their values. Our swim team is a lot about the family and being there for each other. We focus on racing when we need to race. But you immediately have 50 or 60 of your best friends as soon as you enter the swim team.

“Then I met with Rich Reid,” the personable, now retired associate dean. “He stopped any doubts I had. I really felt like I could fit in.”

Fit in she has, according to her coach, who noted she served as team captain her junior year. Coach Humphrey said, “She may have come from half-way around the world, but the moment she stepped on campus she was one of us.  Sianne is a leader in and out of the pool and has earned nothing but success since she has been here, including school records and a conference championship.  

“Her impact on the team has been tremendous and she will leave an everlasting legacy when she is done.”

Overcoming homesickness

While Downes always did well in school and claimed a league title in the COVID-tainted 2020-21 season, she did fight homesickness her freshman year. 

“My freshman year I kind of wanted to go home and just study.” But reaching out to a junior teammate from South Africa helped. So did keeping busy. In addition to swimming 20 hours per week during the season and taking a full course load, she also has been on the SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) Formula race car team all four years.

She did go home on Christmas break and has done so since, as well as most summers, except for a shadowing experience last summer. “I do enjoy going home.”

Downes said she didn’t come to SDSU with preconceived expectations. “I came in very open minded. I was always told you have to be open minded, especially that first year because it is very hard.” Since then, she has made it a priority to help other international students on the swim team.

The swim team is more international than any other SDSU team with four on the men’s roster and four on the women’s roster.

Formula car provides chance to put lessons to use

In the classroom, Downes found, “There is a lot of passion from each class as well as with the professors. In general, it is not just (students) complaining about being in classes all day, every day. It’s definitely not just theory.  

“There is a good balance, I would say 60-40 with theory and lab. There is a lot of practical design and building.”

Downes also gets plenty of practical application through the Formula race car project, which this year involves 15 students. For Downes and fellow swimmer Matthew Sorenson, it is also their senior design project. They are in charge of the aerodynamic system. This will be the first time since Downes has been on the team that the SDSU car has implemented an aerodynamic system.

That meant plenty of internet research to learn what processes other teams have done to create a front wing, a rear wing and a diffuser.

“It is a lot of trial and error,” said Downes, who is thankful she took an aerodynamics class her junior year. “It gave me a better base for understanding.” In the fall, she plugged the aerodynamic information into a computational fluid dynamics software program to test the efficiency of the design.

‘Would love to work in Formula 1’

This semester she and Sorenson crafted the wings and undertray out of layers of carbon fiber in the production lab in Chicoine Architecture, Mathematics and Engineering Hall.

The plan is to have the car assembled by the first week of April and then test it in a university parking lot on a weekend. SDSU’s Wild Hare Racing team is one of 120 entered in the Society of Automotive Engineer’s Formula contest at Michigan International Speedway May 8-11, just days after her May 4 graduation.

Downes went to the contest after her sophomore year and plans to be there again this year; understandable since working on Formula cars is her dream job.

“Formula 1 was the dream” when she chose to go into engineering in her senior year of high school. “It’s still the dream. I would love to work in Formula 1. If that doesn’t work out, I could see myself working in other engineering fields. I did some shadowing at the Brookings Regional Airport last summer. I could see myself working on planes or jets.”

Looking to the coming years

For school year 2024-25, she plans to take math classes and a couple engineering courses while completing her athletic eligibility.

After that she plans to pursue a master’s in motor sports engineering, “probably in the UK. That will set me up quite nicely to start applying for Formula 1 jobs in aerodynamic design,” said Downes, who noted she started watching televised professional races with her dad in her sophomore year of high school.

She added, “Senior design has been one of the best experiences. It’s been a lot of hard work, but it’s been satisfying.”