More than six months have passed since the swimming season officially started and it’s far from over for one Bobcat. Junior Laurin Williams still has her season highlight ahead of her.
After swimming a time of 16:14.60 minutes in the 1650-yard freestyle at the Mid-American Conference championships at the beginning of the month, the junior qualified for the NCAA championship this weekend in Indianapolis, Ind.
“Obviously we’re really excited about this opportunity,” Ohio coach Greg Werner said.
With the invitation, his captain joins a club of two-time NCAA qualifiers at Ohio. After placing 23rd in the 1650-yard freestyle on the national stage last year, she is the first swimmer in 12 years to qualify for the national event in two consecutive years.
Williams, however, is still not satisfied and has increased her expectations.
“I want to do better than last year,” Williams said after the conference championship.
Werner agreed with her and sees a lot of potential for this year’s national competition.
“Last year I told her that it was a great opportunity to do a great swim,” Werner said. “But last year she had the diaper on, that comes off this year.”
To better last year’s result, Williams spent her whole spring break close to the Aquatic Center to increase her yardage after tapering for the MAC championship.
“The timing of spring break afforded us a week to be an athlete instead of a student-athlete and that really turns out,” Werner said.
Still, after the MAC championship, Williams expressed her concern that her second taper is never as good as her first one. Last year, she swam 10 seconds slower in the1650-yard freestyle at the NCAA championship than she did at the conference meet.
“We’re going to be better in shape this year at the NCAA championships than we were last year,” Werner said. “Not that we were in bad shape last year but we are in a different spot than we were last year.”
He added that Williams still hasn’t put all coins on the table this season, despite almost breaking her program record in the 1650-yard freestyle.
“She just swam very aggressively early, broke the 1000-yard freestyle record along the way but paid the price at the end,” Werner said. “I hope the extra work we did and putting an extra focus on the extra tank will hopefully allow her to go out that fast and bring it home.”
However this weekend will turn out, the fact that Williams will lose her undefeated season in the 1650-yard freestyle is almost certain. Seeded in 30th, Williams’ time of 16:14.60 minutes is 37 seconds slower than the time of first seeded Stephanie Peacock of North Carolina.
Williams is also swimming the 500-yard freestyle in the same lineup as U.S. Olympian Allison Schmitt of Georgia.
“I’m not nervous yet,” Williams said. “It will probably not hit me until I will warm up for the 500-yard freestyle Thursday.”
am794811@ohiou.edu
