The Northwestern women’s swimming team’s last meet was the NCAA championships in Columbus, Ohio on March 22.
Now, nine Wildcats are attempting to reach the highest individual stage of international competition.
Six members of the team have qualified for the U.S. Olympic Trials, led by four-time All-American Andrea Hupman. Hupman will participate in the 50-, 100-, and 200-meter freestyle. She’s ranked in the top-40 in all three events, headed by her 12th place seed in the 100-meter free.
An unlimited amount of swimmers can qualify for the Olympic Trials, but only a small fraction can represent the United States. The top two swimmers in each Olympic event and top six swimmers in the 100- and 200-meter freestyle events make the Olympic team.
The Cats have been training in a long course setup at SPAC. The pool is adjusted from NCAA to Olympic standards, with one lap equaling 50 meters as opposed to 25 yards (22.86 meters).
New to this experience are freshmen Ellen Grigg, Liza Engstrom and Teisha Lightbourne. Grigg has already qualified for the trials in the 200- and 400-yard freestyle events. Engstrom is attempting to qualify in two events, the 100- and 200-yard backstroke.
Lightbourne has her sights set on qualifying for her native team – the Bahamas – where the system is different than in America. Sophomore Emily Wong competed in the Canadian Olympic Trials two weekends ago, swimming a personal best in the 50- and 100-meter free. Her sixth-place finish in the 100-meter free fell just short of making the Canadian team, where only the top-four places in freestyle swims earn a spot.
Sophomores Rachel Rys (200-meter fly) and Genny Szymanski (200-meter back) are each competing in one event, while sophomore Kassia Shishkoff has qualified for a team-high four events: the 200- and 400-meter IM and the 200- and 800-meter free. Shishkoff called going to the trials a, “once in a lifetime experience.”
“It’s not really that much pressure for people like me,” she said. “But it’s one of the fastest meets I’ll ever be in and a once-in-a-lifetime thing. I’ll get to see some world records broken, hopefully.”
Rys said the intensity has risen after missing time this season due to nerve injuries and competing in only one event at the Big Ten championships.
“It’s been a big adjustment from last year,” Rys said. “Last spring we kind of came in and played games and stuff, but this year I feel like the coaches are making it a lot more serious in preparation for (the Trials).”
Senior Katie Braun is the only NU swimmer who had previously participated in the Olympic Trials, qualifying for the 100-meter fly in 2004. This season, Braun made the cut in the same event, but chose to retire after the NCAA championships.
Hupman is perhaps NU’s best chance of sending a swimmer to Beijing. Her goal is to replicate her performance at the World University Games in Bangkok, Thailand, last August, where she placed second in the 100-meter free. But at the same time, she’s looking to maintain a level attitude with all the excitement.
“You want to treat it like you do any other race,” Hupman said. “If you get preoccupied thinking, ‘This is the biggest thing of my life,’ it could play mental games with you and hurt you. I like to treat it as ‘Hey, it’s any other race, let’s see how fast I can go.’ “
