The 17-year-old says her decision to focus on one sport rather than several has left her riding a wave of success.
"I used to be involved in swimming, netball, cricket, volleyball and basketball, but I was spreading myself too thinly. I was getting injuries, so I decided to focus on swimming. I think putting all my eggs in one basket was a sensible idea."
This year, Katie has won gold in the New Zealand Age Group Championships 200m breaststroke, silver in the 100m breaststroke and bronze in the 50m breaststroke.
She also won eight gold medals at the Otago Swimming Championships, was named overall Otago Age Group Champion and won a dozen medals in the Otago and South Island Secondary Schools Swimming Championships, where she set records in the Otago 50m breaststroke and the South Island 100m breaststroke and 400m medley.
As a result, she was selected to represent New Zealand in the Transtasman Tri Series in Australia, where she won third place and was named a female swimmer of the event.
"Before this year, I think I had about 10 medals. Now I've got about 50."
The recent string of successes has put steam in Katie's stroke and she plans to compete in the 2012 Olympic breaststroke events.
Although she is also successful in the classroom - winning school prizes for graphics, maths, science, health and English last year - Katie plans to pursue sporting ambitions and study sports nutrition at the University of Otago.
Achievements: 2008 New Zealand Age Group Swimming Championships gold medalist, Otago Swimming Championships 8 gold medals; Swimming and Academic Blues Awards (2006 and 2007); School Sports Council head student (2008); Finalist in four Olympic Open A trials; ICAS Maths Competition credit (2007).
Role model: Olympic gold medallist Danyon Loader and her coach, Gennadiy Labara.
Hopes for the future: To study sports nutrition at the University of Otago.