t SK freshman Nicole Hinely no stranger to the water or success.

Most 6- and 7-year-old girls spend their free time playing with Barbie’s pool house.

Nicole Hinely was actually in the pool — and she hasn’t gotten out since.

“I started when I was 6 or 7 in swim lessons, and have been going ever since,” she said. “It occupies most of my life.”

She’s not kidding, either. It’s only the beginning of October and Hinley has already qualified for state in the 100-yard butterfly and 100 freestyle. She is eyeing the 200 free, too, even though swimmers can only have two state berths.

“My goal is to try and exceed the limit,” she said.

Count South swimming coach Dennis Anderson among those who aren’t too surprised by her plans.

“You don’t see a lot of ninth graders with that kind of go-get-and-go,” he said of the team’s lone freshman. “It’s a little more rare in a freshman.”

Anderson said that while Hinley’s age factors in, “She works hard and always wants to do the right things. She’s kind of a tone-setter.”

Being the only swimmer on the team who doesn’t actually attend South — she’s a freshman at Marcus Whitman Junior High — could be seen as a disadvantage, but Hinley just works harder.

Not only does she want those state titles, but she’s thinking about the future, too.

“I have no idea what I want to do in the future other than swimming,” she said. “College isn’t cheap at all these days, and a scholarship really would be nice.”

Specifically, somewhere a little warmer, like, say, Nevada.

Hinley has drawn some early parallels to Madison Rousell, who won the state 4A championship for South in the 100 free in 2004 and 2006 and the 50 free in 2005 and 2006, and now swims at UNLV.

And she clearly doesn’t mind the comparisons, saying Rousell is “like my older sister. It was really hard having her leave for college.”

Hinley said she got a chance to visit her over the summer, and hopes to swim for UNLV, too.

“I felt like I had one of the greatest workouts of my career,” she said of swimming with Rousell. “She was pushing me.”

Once the season is over, Hinley will play a little “Rock Band” and “Guitar Hero” with her friends — and then hit the pool again, this time with the Puget Sound Swim Club.

“They’re what keeps me going,” she said of the Port Orchard club. “They’re the only swim club I’ve been with my whole life, and I wouldn’t trade them for the world.”

A similar sentiment seems to be forming at South.

“She’s going to be a good one,” Anderson said of his atypical 5-foot-3 swimmer. “She definitely has all the tools — hopefully we can get her a little taller.

“As far as the strength, technique and work ethic, it’s all there for the taking for her.”