GUTTERTALK

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HOW SPECIAL WAS IT TO BE BACK ON DECK AT A CHAMPIONSHIP MEET AGAIN?

BY ANDY ROSS

LARS JORGENSEN

Head Coach, Kentucky

[PHOTO BY NOAH J. RICHTER, UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY] Normally we are together in the summer, and we weren’t together at all. That was really unique, but I think the challenges of keeping the team engaged whether they were training at their clubs or on Zoom meetings, we did the best we could.

When we came back in August with our team, we were like, “OK, well, we have to get back in shape,” and our main goal was to stay healthy. There were challenges all year. Our freshmen never had the normal experience of going to football games and having class with people and meeting new people. It was all different.

But in some ways, all the stuff we had to go through—our athletic director told the team this—that winning during the COVID year may be even more special because of all the stuff we had to do. Everyone had to do it! But we are lucky we overcame that.

JAKE MAGAHEY

Freshman, University of Georgia

[PHOTO BY CHRISTINA LONG, GEORGIA ATHLETICS] We’ve been really lucky at Georgia this season. We had four or five dual meets and a pretty normal season—not a lot of hiccups with COVID. We had SECs, and besides spectators not being there, it felt like a normal meet. I don’t want to say we took it for granted, but it went so smoothly that we were all treating it like a regular meet. It was probably the most exciting and draining meet I have been to, but it was a good time.

SWIM MART

REACH LONG KICK STRONG

ARTHUR ALBIERO

Head Coach, University of Louisville

[PHOTO BY PETER H. BICK] I think as the season progressed, our mindset changed. I preached all year to have an attitude of gratitude. I’ve done this before, but I think every practice from even the summer, I always called warm-down a “400 gratitude swim” because I wanted people to leave the practice and think, “I don’t know what tomorrow is going to bring—and I am not going to worry about tomorrow—but today was awesome.”

I wanted them to have an appreciation for the fact that a lot of people were doing a lot of work behind the scenes to allow us to be there and have practice. We have always been humble, and I think that fit in well with our program, this attitude of gratitude.

As we were leaving for ACCs, it was like, “Guys, we get to go! How awesome is that?” The night before, we are having a team meeting, and like, “It is so awesome we get to do this!” It was almost like a Christmas morning feeling. There is no complaint for us to go three times during the meet to get COVID-tested. It was inconvenient, but it was so awesome we got to do it.

PHOEBE BACON

Freshman, University of Wisconsin

[PHOTO BY WISCONSIN ATHLETICS]

It was pretty awesome. It was extremely loud with just having the teams in the stands. You had a few people down on deck cheering. I gave my dad a call midway through the meet, and he mentioned to me that it looked so much fun on TV, and he couldn’t even imagine the atmosphere with spectators in the stands. It was like, “Wow! It’s going to be super loud when we get everyone in here next year.” But just this year with all the different changes and precautions we had to take, it was so much fun to be able to bring the entire women’s team together and cheer everybody on, and watch two of the seniors have their last swims. I know I’ve only known them for a year, but it was special. 