TEN QUESTIONS WITH...

Probably around the age of nine was when I started competing. But I started swimming underwater at the ripe old age of two, scaring my parents. But it wasn’t until about nine that I started to compete on the club level.

2. Is your preparation or the way you race different in a relay vs. a solo event?

With the relay, you get that team experience. You are counting on the other people as much as they are counting on you; it’s fun standing behind the blocks with three other girls and getting excited about swimming the same thing.

3. Do you have a pre-event routine and if so, what is it?

Not really, depending on the event you jump around a little bit to get the blood flowing. Sometimes we dance behind the blocks, I personally enjoy that, it’s kinda silly, but it’s fun.

4. UB is hosting the Mid-American Conference Championships on February 20-23, what kind of advantage does that give to your team?

Huge, home pool advantage is huge. We are familiar with the walls and our turns, which is a huge part of swimming. In the 50 (yard races) it’s a start, a turn and the finish so if you are familiar with the turns you are already ahead of the game. In addition, a lot of us are from the area so most of our families will be able to come out and support us and hopefully other students will too.

5. For you personally, you have swam your season-best times at the MAC Championships in each of your first three seasons, what is it about the conference championships that brings out your best?

It’s the taper. You train all season very hard, swimming, lifting weights, everything and then three or four weeks out we, the sprinters, begin to taper. As we get closer, the middle distance and distances swimmers also taper. You really rest for the meet and that is what gives you that advantage to really drop a lot of time.

6. What are your goals this season going into the conference championship?

Individually, I would love to swim some new personal bests and place in the top 16 in my events. As a team, I know that we are looking to go out and score as high as possible. We are looking for the team to be top four, so that’s our goal.

7. The men’s and women’s swim programs are running as a combined program this year. What has that meant to the swimmers on a day-to-day basis, has that meant a change or a difference to the teams?

Huge change, huge difference. We used to be very separate programs. We maybe saw each other during meets and that was the extent of it. Now, we train together everyday, girls and guys in the same lanes, doing the same practices, sometimes at different intervals but most of the time we are all doing the same thing. We still lift separately but we have a lot more combined meets and that is great because it means there is more people there to support you, encourage you and challenge you. It has been a great addition this year.

8. This coming Saturday, UB will be celebrating National Girls and Women in Sports Day, what is the goal or purpose of that program?

For the past few years, we have sent student-athletes out into the schools to mentor students, helping them with homework or hanging out shooting baskets or throwing a football around. That is one thing that we do and then on the actual day of National Girls and Women in Sports Day we host a clinic for area youth. All of our varsity sports have stations that groups can go around to and experience all of our varsity sports.

This year, Anita DeFrantz is our keynote speaker. She was an Olympic medalist and now serves on the International Olympic Committee. She will be speaking and we also will have a student-athlete and student club speaker.

9. What has been your favorite moment as a student-athlete at UB?

Well, one of the most exciting moments was our team competing at the Akron Invitational this past December and being part of a record-setting relay team. Also, beating Ball State to win our first MAC meet in my four years here was great too. This whole year has been an exciting experience, our team has found a lot of success and we have a winning record this year, but I think that the best is yet to come when we host the MAC Championships.

10. If you could play any other sport at UB, what and why?

If I had to pick a varsity sport it would be soccer because I grew up playing soccer and played through high school. But then I had to choose between swimming and soccer. But if I could chose any sport, if UB offered a varsity lacrosse program I would love to play lacrosse here.