How did you choose swimming?
I started off as a volleyball player — I played for eight years. But I knew I wanted to play a sport in college, and realistically I’m too short to play volleyball in college, so I decided to take a step back and focus more on swimming, because I started swimming when I was about ten — just to learn the basics and not drown, and then I just kind of stuck with it.
How much swimming did you do in high school?
I was on a high school team and a club team. The club was all-year-round and we swam about 20 hours a week.
How much do you swim here?
The NCAA limit is 20 hours. If you go over, you’re not supposed to, but you don’t exactly log every hour. It’s just kind of a base, and we normally hit that on Saturdays.
How is it balancing a Hillsdale education with a lot of swimming?
There’s definitely a learning curve. By the time you’re out of practice and eating dinner, all you want to do is take a nap, but you’ll still have hours of homework to do. At first, last year, it was a little tough for me to find a good balance of sleep and work and all that stuff, but you figure it out after a little bit.
What have been your biggest accomplishments in college?
I was on a record-breaking relay last year with all other freshmen, so that was really fun. That was probably my most proud moment to be on the swim team, especially since it was all freshmen on the relay. And then I’ve gotten best times in my 50 freestyle and my 100 freestyle. They’re the shorter events, so they’re harder to drop time in since they’ve got small time slots.
How do you choose which events you end up doing?
It’s kind of based on stroke and personality. So, the 50 and 100 free work really well for me, since I have a really high tempo stroke and I can kick really fast, for a short period of time. Because of that, I have a little bit harder time holding a consistent pace for 10 minutes. My mentality of short and fast is more fun, and I think it fits well. The training will be different: you need a higher muscle mass and fast twitch muscles, which will work differently on me than long-distance swimmers. Sprinters are normally the more mellow, laid-back at practice. Distance, the opposite of me, are really intense — they always want to get a ton of work done.
Describe the moment you broke Hillsdale’s relay record.
When we broke the relay record, I didn’t even know, I didn’t know the previous time. Initially, we were like, “Yeah, that’s a really great time!” And then, once we walked over to our coach, we all kind of freaked out, because, at least I didn’t realize that we had broken a record. Then it all came together, that we were all freshmen and that we broke a record that had been there for a while, so it was just kind of like a blissful moment. It’s funny because in high school, I wouldn’t even know my own times. I’d kind of just be like, “Alright we have a swim meet, I’ll show up.” My coach would have to tell me my best times. I’m more the easy-going one that works hard, but has fun. I definitely push people in my lane, but I don’t get riled up easily.
Was Hillsdale an easy choice for you?
No, I had a few other offers from other schools, but it came down to academics, really. I knew the education I was going to get here would be really good and it would last longer than my swim career.
Do you have any moments in your college swim career that have stood out to you?
Since I’m a sprinter, I swim the exact same events every single meet, which is boring sometimes. It’s really hard to drop in my event since they’re so short, so you’re just repeatedly trying, and trying, and trying, and failing most of the time because you know you’re not going to drop every single time. It takes you back a step because normally, you see your time and you’re a little disappointed, “Oh, I didn’t go best time,” but then you realize that it’s the middle of the season and you’re working really hard. It just makes you appreciate how much work you have to put in to go your best time and really accomplish something. It makes the times when you do go best time and really accomplish something better than if you were dropping time every single time — it just makes it feel more special. It definitely makes me appreciate other swimmers more and how much time and effort they have to put in for the times that they achieve.
