Picture it: you’ve trained all your life. You’ve sacrificed time with friends and family. You’ve eaten the right foods and fought off injuries to be there, on the starting block at the 2008 Olympic Swimming Trials. To the right of you, or maybe the left, are world champions like Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte. Around you are 14,000 roaring fans. That was the experience for Yellow Jackets Noah Copeland, Johnny Hagaman, Agatha Kwasnik and Travis Wagner, all of whom competed for Olympic spots during the 10-day competition in Omaha. While none of the Jackets will appear in Beijing, their experiences at the Trials were critical to their growth.
“Now that I have been at a competition of that level, I don’t want to give it up,” Wagner said. “I want to go to the big meets and I want to compete there.”
The trials also served as an important measuring stick for the Jacket swimmers. “It made me realize that what I have is not that far removed from what they have. And what they have is outstanding,” Kwasnik said.
The gap that Kwasnik speaks of is as much physical as mental. Kwasnik completed the 100-freestlye in 57.79. While it is a little ways off from Dara Torres’s 53.78, Kwasnik, who’s entering her junior year, has the ability and the motivation to improve. “I’m really excited to strive to be at the top of the ACC and the NCAAs. I’ve set new goals for myself and I’m ready to go achieve them,” she said.
As I sat with this group of swimmers, I got a sense of the excitement they feel when going up against the world’s best. Hagaman described the event as the “the biggest, fastest meet” he has competed in. There was a feeling among the four that competing in the Trials sets them up for success during the collegiate season.
Crosskey can be reached at jcrosskey@aol.com.
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