We all know that here at USC, sports are a part of everyday campus life. But people often overlook almost all of the other D1 sports that U of SC has to offer besides football, like swimming. This is a huge mistake we, other non-superhuman (can you even imagine swimming a whole mile?) students, are making. Here is a glimpse of what it’s like to be on the swim team with one of the swimmers, Makenzie Miller:
Year: Sophomore
Hometown: Fulton, Maryland
Why did you want to swim in college?
“I was doing it my whole life and being a D1 swimmer is a big accomplishment. It is not something that everyone has the opportunity to do, and if you’re good enough you should take advantage of it, even if you just do it for a little bit!”
I read that youre a freestyle swimmer. How is it decided which strokes you do?
“In high school, you already have the events you’re good at and when you get recruited – in general – you get recruited for what [the team] needs. So if there is already a bunch of freestyle people of the team, then they won’t need you.”
Is freestyle your favorite stroke?
“I like [the strokes] equally. Sometimes you will swim freestyle so many times that you might switch to butterfly, or vice versa. So overall, I love them both equally.”
When and where are the SEC Swimming Championships?
“Championships are February 16th through the 20th in Columbia, Missouri.”
So the swimmers stay in Missouri the whole time?
“Yeah, people on the team who go end up missing about a week of school.”
Do you feel that the U of SC Swim Team has given you a family here?
“Yeah, they’re basically the only people I hang out with, even though I have also made friends on other sports teams. You also don’t have that much time to go out and meet other people, so yeah; they’re basically a family to me.”
Finally, what does U of SC Swimming mean to you?
“Well, we have a hash tag that we created for ourselves, called #upiscoming, because we are not the best team in the SEC, but our recruiting is getting much better and we are faster than we have ever been. We like to think that in the future we will be just as fast as the other teams who are at the top of the SEC. So #upiscoming is how we represent how we come together and help each other become the best!”