Overlooking the water at the Norris Aquatics Center, inscribed on wooden boards, are the names of Northwestern’s record holders.
Junior Kassia Shishkoff’s name is already on the record board more than all but two swimmers in NU history. Despite her accomplishments, Shishkoff’s legacy has yet to be defined.
“I think that she can still go out of here as one of the most successful swimmers in our history,” coach Jimmy Tierney said. “But in my opinion, she still has more to do and more to achieve finishing her last year. I still think we haven’t gotten the best yet. It’s been very good, but there’s more there.”
After qualifying for the NCAA Championships as a freshman and sophomore, Shishkoff will most likely be staying home this season. Qualifiers for the meet are determined by a swimmer’s rank out of those who have achieved ‘B’ qualifying times, and Shishkoff almost certainly will not make it.
“I feel like we gave it our best shot,” she said. “Things will probably be different next year. Obviously I’m disappointed, but I’m just looking forward to next year. I’m just going to have to swim faster.”
Shishkoff said she has raised her expectations significantly since she first stepped on campus, when she hoped only to be able to keep up with her teammates.
She entered NU relatively unknown. Despite winning six North Carolina state titles in high school, Shishkoff was only modestly recruited.
“We knew she was talented,” Tierney said. “I had gotten some good feedback in terms of what we thought her capabilities were and what we thought she could do in the future. But we really didn’t know until we had her in here.”
Shishkoff showed her potential almost immediately.
In the eighth meet of her career, she won four individual events and set a pool record in 1650-yard freestyle, putting her name on the record board for the first time.
“I don’t really look at it that often,” said Shishkoff, who also holds the 400-yard individual medley school record and was part of two record-setting relays. “School records are cool, but they’re not what I think about. I think about beating my own times.”
In attempting to improve her times, Shishkoff has also expanded her versatility. With range from the 100- to 1650-yard freestyle and speed in all four strokes, Shishkoff excels in numerous events.
Her versatility even extends to the classroom, where she is double majoring in journalism and Spanish and was an Academic-All Big Ten selection last season.
With 20 hours each week dedicated to swimming practice, Shishkoff is constantly trying to balance everything on her schedule.
“You’ve got to pick your battles,” she said. “You’ve got to figure out what work you have to do, and then you’ve got to shave some off. I can’t skip the pool. I’m required to be there 20 hours a week, and swimming is paying for my college, so I can’t slack off on that. So with the schoolwork, you’ve got to take any time you have free to get it done and then get to bed.”
Shishkoff is usually in bed by 11 p.m. so she can get rested for 6 a.m. practice. Some days, she doesn’t get a break until 5 p.m. Despite her busy schedule, she is one of the team’s hardest workers each day in practice.
“She’s intense in everything she does,” said junior Genny Szymanski, Shishkoff’s teammate and roommate. “She’s never slacking off. Every day, she just brings it.”
Shishkoff’s concentration and determination in practices consistently carries over to races as well. In dual meets, she said she has only one objective – hitting the wall first, something she has done 20 times this season.
But her success in dual meets has not translated to the Big Ten Championships. Despite being one of the conference’s best swimmers in the regular season, she has yet to score a top-five finish at Big Tens.
This season, Shishkoff was named Big Ten Swimmer of the Week twice but failed to qualify for the championship final in any of her individual events in the postseason.
“There’s always pressure because I tend to swim really well during the season, especially in dual meets, and I’m expected to win all the time,” she said. “But then at the end, people who didn’t swim as well during the dual meet season come back, and they beat me. And so that’s pretty frustrating.”
In her first two years at NU, Shishkoff qualified to swim the 400-yard individual medley and the 500- and 1650-yard freestyles at NCAAs. She was also an honorable mention All-American last season as a part of the Wildcats’ 400- and 800-yard freestyle relays.
While Shishkoff’s best finish individually was 19th in the 500 free her sophomore year, her success on relays makes Tierney believe she can be a major factor at NCAAs in her senior season, her last chance to break through in the postseason, he said.
“I think she can race at a national level and score at the NCAA Championships,” he said. “I think she’s capable of doing that at the U.S. National Championships in the summer, too. But it’s all about just matching the ability with the desire and having a goal that’s something that she wants bad enough.”
