Northwestern coach Jimmy Tierney knew sophomore Ellen Grigg was prepared to swim fast at the 2009 NCAA championships.
Once Grigg set foot in the pool, that thought became reality.
Despite failing to qualify for the finals in any of her three events in College Station, Texas, Grigg broke three school records and grabbed three top-20 finishes on college swimming’s biggest stage.
Grigg, NU’s only qualifier for the NCAAs, took 17th in the 500-yard freestyle and 19th in both the 200-yard freestyle and 1650-yard freestyle. She fell short of the top-16 finish needed to reach the finals and score team points for the Wildcats.
In Tierney’s eyes, her three top-20 finishes were a product of two years of hard work.
“She just works so hard during the year that, if she’s rested and feeling good and ready to get after the race, then special things are going to happen for her,” Tierney said.
In the preliminaries of the 500 free, Grigg’s first race at the NCAAs, she broke her own school record by 0.72 seconds. But despite besting that mark set at last season’s NCAA meet, where she earned first-team All-American honors and finished eighth, Grigg missed the event’s finals by 0.04 seconds this year.
But Grigg didn’t dwell on the result.
“I felt like I swam pretty well in the 500 free,” Grigg said. “And missing by one spot was obviously disappointing, but I had to just concentrate on getting ready to race the next day.”
The following day, Grigg swam a personal best in the 200 free and improved three places from her 22nd-place finish as a freshman. Tierney said her ability to bounce back exemplifies the attitude of a champion athlete.
“Her attitude reminds me of some of the other great swimmers we’ve had in the past,” Tierney said. “And those athletes, they all have setbacks. I think the champions are those who learn from it and come back and do better. Ellen did such a great job of that.”
Grigg swam another personal best the following day, breaking two school records in the 1650-yard freestyle. Her time of 16:10.92 bettered the previous record by nearly seven seconds, and her 9:49.61 split at the race’s 1000-yard mark was also the best in school history.
“I always kind of thought I had two strong events in the 500 free and 200 free, and then a third, kind of weaker event,” Grigg said of the 1650 free. “So I was pretty relaxed heading into the race, and I really just tried to go out and keep my pace steady.”
Despite narrowly missing the event’s finals, Grigg maintained her stamina over the course of the longest race of the tournament. The sophomore kept each 50-yard split under 30 seconds and won her preliminary heat by nearly 15 seconds.
Tierney hopes the experience Grigg gained at this year’s NCAAs will allow her to reach the finals at the meet next season.
“It’s different once you’ve been there and put pressure on yourself to perform at a high level,” Tierney said. “She performed better than she did the year before, and that’s kind of what you hope to do. Now, we set the bar a little higher.
“But also, I hope it gives her a little more confidence throughout the year – that she’s one of the best in the Big Ten conference. Hopefully she’ll go out and prove that next year.”
