Some people think swimming is an individual sport. I used to think like that before I started to swim in college. However at Saturday’s meet I had one more example that swimming is a team sport.
I was ready to swim my event. I was watching behind the blocks as Megan Young was having an outstanding race. She swam the entire 1,000 yards head-to-head with the swimmer from Delta.
The team was going insane watching her race. I went crazy behind the blocks. Megan won the race in the last 50 meters in the touch by less than one second.
At that moment I knew we would win the meet. The adrenaline was high. The team was excited. The meet had other expressive performances, but that moment was the turning point for our team.
The Ouachita swimmers treat their grades in the same way that they care about swim meets. If someone on the team is having problems with a particular subject this question is resolved fast. They just ask help for their teammates for help and they study together.
The swimming and diving team topped the NCAA Division II rankings of academic performance for the spring semester 2008 with a combined women’s and men’s team GPA of 3.298.
We did that as a team. It is our mentality. Former Head Coach Jim Dann implanted that, and Head Coach Ryan Killackey has similar values.
“My main goal is to get each swimmer to realize his potential and then get them to try and reach that potential,” Coach Dann said. “I think that the most important thing for each of them to learn is personal responsibility. Be responsible for what you do. Do not blame or depend on others to do things that you should be doing.”
Last year we qualified 19 swimmers for the NCAA Division II National Championships in Missouri. Thirteen of those swimmers were selected to the Division II All-American Academic Team. To receive that honor it is necessary to have a GPA higher than 3.5 and make an A cut for the national championships.
Our schedule is challenging. We wake up everyday at 5:30 a.m. We lift weights. We have three hour practices in the afternoons. We don’t have fall and Christmas breaks. We have meets during the weekends, and we have to at least try to eat healthy. How do you do all that?
“First, it helps that Coach Killackey is very supportive of us in our schoolwork,” said sophomore Katie Patterson, Ouachita record holder of 400 I.M. who has 4.0 GPA. “If we need extra time to study, he will let us study during practice. Second, it is really all about working hard and budgeting your time wisely. By prioritizing assignments, we are able to last through the long season without going insane.”
Junior Radu Badalac from Romania believes that to stay entertained is one of the keys for the success of the athletes in the swimming team.
“Overall, I believe that our attitude toward school and swimming is a positive one,” said Badalac, Ouachita record holder of 100-back and 200-free who has a GPA 3.71. “That is what drives us to excel in both. We all signed up for all that, lots of hours in the pool, gym, and in class, but there is time for fun, too. The swim team is a very diverse group of people, so, just being around these people is fun.”
We succeed in pools and in the classrooms because we are a team. Megan’s story is an example, but each day in our pool, stories similar that happen. I am a college swimmer, and I am really proud of my team.
