A WashU swimmer competes in a dual meet in January. (Brandon Juarez-Ramos | Staff Photographer)

“The secret to success in sports is 90% mentality and 10% skill.” This is a commonly touted mantra in the field of athletics, where the top level is characterized by minimal differences in physicality. And swimming, the epitome of aerobic demand, is no different.

Fifth-year Kyle Wolford spoke about the importance of having a strong mindset, especially in the realm of swim. 

“You could put in all the work in the world and be in way better physical shape than everyone else, and you can absolutely mindset your way out of swims,” he said. “That is something that I’ve worked on. I think a lot of people on our team have worked on that — no matter what you’ve been doing before, having a bad mindset going into it will never help you. And so I would say maybe eighty-twenty mindset and skills/preparation.”

WashU’s swim and dive teams competed for conference honors at the University Athletic Association (UAA) Championships on Feb. 12-15. After four days of intense competition at Emory University’s Woodruff P.E. Center, the No. 14 men’s team finished in fifth, and the No. 15 women’s team finished in fourth place. With five top-three finishes, highlighted by a victory from fifth-year Kyle Wolford, the Bears have now concluded conference play and turn their sights towards the national championships.

Each day featured a variety of distances and strokes, with diving events also sprinkled throughout. Additionally, each morning began with preliminary races, with the top finishers qualifying for the finals of that event the same night. Finals were also broken down into three levels: A, B, and C, with more team points being awarded in the A sections. 

Head Coach Brad Shively highlighted what the team focused on before the meet. 

“We worked on a lot of details moving into Championship week,” he wrote in a statement to Student Life. “There was a focus on starts, turns, and breakouts. In addition, the athletes were working on details that were important to their individual races like pacing and stroke counts. A big part of Championship week is being in a championship mindset, so exercises that allowed them to really think about what a perfect race or stroke looks like.”  

Junior Ali Roche added to what preparation for the meet looked like. 

“[Shively] definitely emphasized that he was there for whatever we needed help with. He wrote the main practice on the board, but he said ‘Adjust it however you need,’” she said. “We definitely focused on relay starts a lot towards the end, because we knew that relays were going to be super important.” 

In the men’s side of the competition, the first and quietest day had two 800 yard freestyle relay teams picking up points for the Bears. The team consisting of seniors Danny Sibley and Pace Edwards and juniors Ethan Feng and Matthew Walker finished fifth in the A-final, and the other quartet — seniors Ryan Hillery and Jeffrey Forbes and juniors Orluke Borjigin and Matt Giardinelli — came in third in the B-final. These two teams joined for 80 points, with an additional 22 from first-year diver Sam Calderwood, good for sixth place on the day.

The second day saw more Bears swimmers breaking into podium positions. In particular, the 500 yard freestyle was a successful event. Forbes claimed third place in the A-final, and Hillery was victorious in the B-final, combining for 47 points. Wolford notched third place in the C-final of the 50 yard freestyle, and the team improved to fifth place, where they would remain for the rest of the competition.

On the third day, the Bears swept the 400 yard individual medley (IM) B-final. Sophomore Marco Minai, first-year Ben Scott, and Hillery finished in first, second, and third place, respectively.

The final day of swimming featured the Bears’ sole first-place finish in an A-final, from both teams. Wolford, in the same event he set a Millstone Pool record a month ago, etched out a two-second lead over the competition and won with a time of 1:44.67.   

“Kyle was really strong all weekend. He not only provided strength in his individual events, but had some big relay swims for us as well,” Shively wrote. “He’s grown a lot over the last few years and it was fun watching him compete. The experience he gained at the NCAA Championships has given him a lot of confidence in his ability to race.”

Speaking about his win, Wolford mentioned his thought process coming up short in the 100 yard backstroke the day before, and how he came back to be victorious in the 200 backstroke.

“I royally screwed up my first turn at night in the hundred back, and ended up finishing sixth. You know, it was just a terrible race for me,” he said. “And the next day was the 200 back, which I think is probably my better event … And that whole race, I was just thinking, I’m not going to let that happen again … I took it out fast, which I don’t normally do, and then just kind of held on for dear life. And thankfully, that ended up working out for me.”

The men’s meet was rounded off by another strong performance in the 400 yard freestyle relay, with Sibley, Wolford, senior Justin Rockaway, and fifth-year Austin Bick placing second in the A-final. 

Ultimately, the men’s team failed to improve on their fifth-place finish from last year’s championships. However, Wolford is looking forward to improving at nationals. 

“I think our conference is just ridiculously fast … And I think we showed really good flashes, especially on relays at this meet,” he said. “There’s so, so many points to be had at nationals in those relays, which I know we can do … It’s once again a matter of ‘Can I get up there and execute it and do what I need to do?’”

On the women’s side of the competition, their 800 yard freestyle relay was headlined by a fourth-place finish from juniors Rin Iimi and Ali Roche, sophomore Rachel Bello, and senior Isabella Barrientos, with a time of 7:29.23.

The second day saw more Bears accumulate valuable points. In the 200 yard freestyle relay, the team of junior Andrea Leng, first-year Iris Qi, and sophomores Peyton Watson and Izzie Gattone took fifth place in the A-final with a time of 1:35.21. The team that competed in the B-final — graduate-student Abbey Mink, first-year Maddie Sammut, sophomore Hannah Lee, and Iimi — notched third place in the B-final. 

Roche, who finished fifth in the B-final in the 500 yard freestyle, spoke on aspects of her performance that she was proud of.

“I was really pleased with my meet overall. I feel like it was the most prepared I’ve ever felt for a meet. And by the last session, I’m usually crawling to make it through, but I still felt energized. And I think a lot of that had to do with the energy that all my teammates were bringing,” she said.

The event that garnered the most points for the team on the second day was the 400 yard medley relay, raced by sophomores Elizabeth Chen, Lee, Watson, and Qi, who finished in fourth place and earned 52 points.   

The third day of the event was arguably the most productive of the four for the women’s team. Lee achieved the team’s highest finish of the competition, placing third in the A-finals of the 100 yard breaststroke with a time of 1:03.44. The 200 yard medley relay team of Chen, Lee, Watson, and Leng also strung together a strong performance for fourth place, with a time of 1:43.92. 

Iimi took eighth in the 400 IM A-final, and second place to fourth place were all claimed by Bears: Bello, junior Natalie Klaas, and first-year Lindsay Alisbah, in order. 

In the final day of competition, the team’s best performance came from Barrientos in the 200 yard backstroke, where she claimed fifth place with Roche two spots behind. The other top finish came from the 400 yard freestyle relay, with Iimi, Bello, senior Riya Sahota, and Sammut finishing in 3:30.13.

The women’s team finished in fourth place, replicating their result from last year. However, both teams face a quick turnaround. Next weekend, those who were not selected to swim at the UAA Championships, or those who simply want to refine their racing, will travel to Chicago to participate in the Midwest Invitational. The main event, though, lies a month away. From March 19-22, the NCAA Championships will take place in Greensboro, North Carolina for a select number of WashU swimmers.    

Roche hopes to use the team’s performance at UAA as a springboard for nationals. 

“The past two years, I’ve kind of just been super excited to go to nationals. But this year, I really want to see how much better I can do at the nationals than I did at conference.”