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Photo by: Tim Cowie - DavidsonPhotos.com
Martin Takes It All In Stride; Prepares for NCAA Championships
3/17/2010 1:09:06 AM | Women's Swimming & Diving
NCAA Division I Swimming & Diving Championship Homepage
Schedule of Events:
Martin's schedule, 50 free/Thursday; 200 free/ Friday; 100 free/Saturday
Live Results
Davidson at the NCAAs
A View From Press Row: Gone Swimming
Junior Lindsey Martin will become the first Davidson swimmer to compete at the NCAA Championships when competition opens at Purdue University's Boilermaker Aquatic Center Thursday.
Martin, who was invited based on her winning time of 22.57 in the 50 freestyle at the 2010 CCSA Championships, will compete for the Wildcats in the 50, 100 and 200 freestyles. She will kick off her competition with the 50 freestyle on Thursday morning, followed by the 200 free Friday and concluded with the 100 free Saturday.
She discusses her expectations and what it's like to become Davidson's first NCAA qualifier below:
Q: You are swimming the 50, the 100 and the 200 this weekend. Do you have a favorite event? Least favorite?
Lindsey: My favorite was always the 50 just because it is so short. You gut it, and it's done. But until this last conference meet, I have always been better at the 100, just because I have the “sprintiness,” but I also train enough to have the endurance to hold it for a 100. So just so out of the blue, I had a really good 50, and so now that's kind of my main event, but is kind of a toss up between the two. The 200 is just way too long. I flip at the 100, and I think I should be done right now, but there's a whole other 100 to go. I'm a sprinter. I want to get it done.
Q: What was your goal going into this season?
Lindsey: Really my goal this season, as it is for every season, is really just earn as many points as I can at conference for my team. I want our women's team to look really good at the end of the year, and so my number one goal is to win my events at conference. And then after that, I wanted to go best times. My next goal was just to see what a whole year of training would amount to, and I ended up dropping a lot of time in my 50 at conference, and that is what ended up qualifying me for the NCAAs.
Q: What's it like to become Davidson's first NCAA qualifier?
Lindsey: It's really cool, but it's not the kind of thing I was expecting, I guess especially in the 50. Because you dive in and it's just crazy and it all happens so fast. You just have to gut it and hope it works out. And it was kind of surprising when I touched, and I had gone as fast as I had.
Q: How has your preparation for the NCAAs compared to other meets, like the CCSA Championships?
Lindsey: Once you start tapering for conference, you slowly start losing yards and doing more concentrated speed sets. Your practices aren't as long. And now that I am past conference, I did about a week of a few harder practices, and now I am just tapering even more. I have never tapered this long before, but everybody else is in my situation.
Q: Explain tapering a little bit for us non-swimmers. Why do swimmers swim best times at the end of the season?
Lindsey: The way swimming works, you are not going to go a best time until the end of the season and so it is nice to see it all came together at the end. I was trying to explain to a friend who plays golf and a friend who plays baseball, and they ask, 'Why wouldn't you rest before every swim meet so you can go fast?' You have to work your body so hard all year so that right at the end you can take the right amount of rest, and your body is primed for a race. As a swimmer you make the choice to work your body all year and give it rest at the end.
Q: As an individual participating in a team sport, what do you enjoy more – the individual accolades, like being named Swimmer of the Meet at this year's CCSAs, or winning team championships?
Lindsey: I would always choose the team. Being Swimmer of the Meet is nice because it recognizes that I literally did all I could to get points for the team. At CCSAs, we had great relays, and our team was just really excited about everybody dropping time. It is nice to see myself drop time after this season, but at the end of the day, my favorite race by far is always relays. I enjoy knowing that the team can depend on me when we get down to it, and that's why I love either the 4x100 or the 4x50 relay. I love being the last leg, knowing they are depending on me and that I have to go fast. That is when I always give my best races.
Q: What has the reaction been like amongst your teammates and on campus?
Lindsey: The team is very excited for me right now. It is kind of hard too because as long as I have been swimming, I have gotten to stick with the schedule of the team. And right now is usually when we get our break, and we get to sleep late and go play Frisbee, but I have to stay in the water. So that's not so fun because the team aspect is what I like so much, but a few girls have been swimming with me, and my roommate Jessica Delgehausen is going to come with me. Being there by myself makes it a me thing, and I don't like that about swimming. I really appreciate all the support, but I hate getting all the attention, too, when all the other people on the team work just as hard, if not harder.
Q: Do you have other friends or family coming to watch you swim this weekend?
Lindsey: My sister, who is a freshman in high school, and my parents are coming, and my grandparents, too. They don't get to see me swim too much so it's nice that they get to come. My parents have been to probably every single swim meet so they wouldn't miss this.
Q: What's your routine like on the day of a meet?
Lindsey: I get really intense behind the block. I definitely have had people on the team comment on how I look super scary. I didn't realize I did this until recently, but a guy on the team pointed out to me that whenever I am going to swim relays, I turn and look at the people that I am going to swim. When I hit the water, I need to absolutely want to get it all out. That's what I like about sprinting; you don't have to pace yourself.
Q: What's your favorite swimming memory this far?
Lindsey: Freshman year, we swam UNCW, the last time we swam them in a dual meet. It was our senior meet, and our team hadn't beaten them in a really long time. That meet ended up coming down to the last relay, and I actually got to be the last leg. When I turned to breath, I saw myself swim myself past the person, and the excitement that we had we won was so great. It was so fun. I loved that so much.
Q: Where is your favorite place that you have gotten to swim?
Lindsey: My favorite place to swim was probably the Georgia pool because I swam so many meets there growing up. Conference was there last year so it was really fun to go back to a childhood pool but be there with my Davidson team.
Q: What's your favorite TV show?
Lindsey: Currently it's a toss up between 30 rock and Lost. I recently got into Lost last year, and I have been trying to catch up. I got sucked in. I watched Season 5 last year because I had friends who were always watching. And seasons 1-5 are on Hulu right now, so I have been slowing watching season 1. And I had a lot of time to watch TV this summer so I watched the whole Arrested Development series.
Q: What's your favorite type of music?
Lindsey: I like rock. I am pretty much open to most types. If it is catchy, I like it. I'm not a huge rap fan. I also really like musicals. If I could have any talent it would be too sing, but I freeze up in front of crowds.
Q: You are a physics major and also pre-med. Did you always plan to go to med school after graduation?
Lindsey: Right now, I am preparing for the MCAT, which I will take this summer. I always played with the idea, but as I have grown and become a little more self-reflective, I have noticed qualities about myself that work well with the profession. I love being the last leg of a relay. It's really important to me to know that people can depend on me.
Q: If junior Lindsey Martin could tell freshman Lindsey Martin something, what would she say?
Lindsey: I feel like myself as a freshman wouldn't be surprised at what I am doing now. I would have been glad that I have been able to continue to drop time because a lot of people find that difficult to do in college. I would be happy that the girls in my grade on the team are all so close; I love that about our team. I would be relieved to see that I had chosen a major and that that was going well. I am a firm believer that things work out if you just keep your eyes open and work hard. I tend not to stress out too much about the future. Stuff works out for the best.
Schedule of Events:
Martin's schedule, 50 free/Thursday; 200 free/ Friday; 100 free/Saturday
Live Results
Davidson at the NCAAs
A View From Press Row: Gone Swimming
Junior Lindsey Martin will become the first Davidson swimmer to compete at the NCAA Championships when competition opens at Purdue University's Boilermaker Aquatic Center Thursday.
Martin, who was invited based on her winning time of 22.57 in the 50 freestyle at the 2010 CCSA Championships, will compete for the Wildcats in the 50, 100 and 200 freestyles. She will kick off her competition with the 50 freestyle on Thursday morning, followed by the 200 free Friday and concluded with the 100 free Saturday.
She discusses her expectations and what it's like to become Davidson's first NCAA qualifier below:
Q: You are swimming the 50, the 100 and the 200 this weekend. Do you have a favorite event? Least favorite?
Lindsey: My favorite was always the 50 just because it is so short. You gut it, and it's done. But until this last conference meet, I have always been better at the 100, just because I have the “sprintiness,” but I also train enough to have the endurance to hold it for a 100. So just so out of the blue, I had a really good 50, and so now that's kind of my main event, but is kind of a toss up between the two. The 200 is just way too long. I flip at the 100, and I think I should be done right now, but there's a whole other 100 to go. I'm a sprinter. I want to get it done.
Q: What was your goal going into this season?
Lindsey: Really my goal this season, as it is for every season, is really just earn as many points as I can at conference for my team. I want our women's team to look really good at the end of the year, and so my number one goal is to win my events at conference. And then after that, I wanted to go best times. My next goal was just to see what a whole year of training would amount to, and I ended up dropping a lot of time in my 50 at conference, and that is what ended up qualifying me for the NCAAs.
Q: What's it like to become Davidson's first NCAA qualifier?
Lindsey: It's really cool, but it's not the kind of thing I was expecting, I guess especially in the 50. Because you dive in and it's just crazy and it all happens so fast. You just have to gut it and hope it works out. And it was kind of surprising when I touched, and I had gone as fast as I had.
Q: How has your preparation for the NCAAs compared to other meets, like the CCSA Championships?
Lindsey: Once you start tapering for conference, you slowly start losing yards and doing more concentrated speed sets. Your practices aren't as long. And now that I am past conference, I did about a week of a few harder practices, and now I am just tapering even more. I have never tapered this long before, but everybody else is in my situation.
Q: Explain tapering a little bit for us non-swimmers. Why do swimmers swim best times at the end of the season?
Lindsey: The way swimming works, you are not going to go a best time until the end of the season and so it is nice to see it all came together at the end. I was trying to explain to a friend who plays golf and a friend who plays baseball, and they ask, 'Why wouldn't you rest before every swim meet so you can go fast?' You have to work your body so hard all year so that right at the end you can take the right amount of rest, and your body is primed for a race. As a swimmer you make the choice to work your body all year and give it rest at the end.
Q: As an individual participating in a team sport, what do you enjoy more – the individual accolades, like being named Swimmer of the Meet at this year's CCSAs, or winning team championships?
Lindsey: I would always choose the team. Being Swimmer of the Meet is nice because it recognizes that I literally did all I could to get points for the team. At CCSAs, we had great relays, and our team was just really excited about everybody dropping time. It is nice to see myself drop time after this season, but at the end of the day, my favorite race by far is always relays. I enjoy knowing that the team can depend on me when we get down to it, and that's why I love either the 4x100 or the 4x50 relay. I love being the last leg, knowing they are depending on me and that I have to go fast. That is when I always give my best races.
Q: What has the reaction been like amongst your teammates and on campus?
Lindsey: The team is very excited for me right now. It is kind of hard too because as long as I have been swimming, I have gotten to stick with the schedule of the team. And right now is usually when we get our break, and we get to sleep late and go play Frisbee, but I have to stay in the water. So that's not so fun because the team aspect is what I like so much, but a few girls have been swimming with me, and my roommate Jessica Delgehausen is going to come with me. Being there by myself makes it a me thing, and I don't like that about swimming. I really appreciate all the support, but I hate getting all the attention, too, when all the other people on the team work just as hard, if not harder.
Q: Do you have other friends or family coming to watch you swim this weekend?
Lindsey: My sister, who is a freshman in high school, and my parents are coming, and my grandparents, too. They don't get to see me swim too much so it's nice that they get to come. My parents have been to probably every single swim meet so they wouldn't miss this.
Q: What's your routine like on the day of a meet?
Lindsey: I get really intense behind the block. I definitely have had people on the team comment on how I look super scary. I didn't realize I did this until recently, but a guy on the team pointed out to me that whenever I am going to swim relays, I turn and look at the people that I am going to swim. When I hit the water, I need to absolutely want to get it all out. That's what I like about sprinting; you don't have to pace yourself.
Q: What's your favorite swimming memory this far?
Lindsey: Freshman year, we swam UNCW, the last time we swam them in a dual meet. It was our senior meet, and our team hadn't beaten them in a really long time. That meet ended up coming down to the last relay, and I actually got to be the last leg. When I turned to breath, I saw myself swim myself past the person, and the excitement that we had we won was so great. It was so fun. I loved that so much.
Q: Where is your favorite place that you have gotten to swim?
Lindsey: My favorite place to swim was probably the Georgia pool because I swam so many meets there growing up. Conference was there last year so it was really fun to go back to a childhood pool but be there with my Davidson team.
Q: What's your favorite TV show?
Lindsey: Currently it's a toss up between 30 rock and Lost. I recently got into Lost last year, and I have been trying to catch up. I got sucked in. I watched Season 5 last year because I had friends who were always watching. And seasons 1-5 are on Hulu right now, so I have been slowing watching season 1. And I had a lot of time to watch TV this summer so I watched the whole Arrested Development series.
Q: What's your favorite type of music?
Lindsey: I like rock. I am pretty much open to most types. If it is catchy, I like it. I'm not a huge rap fan. I also really like musicals. If I could have any talent it would be too sing, but I freeze up in front of crowds.
Q: You are a physics major and also pre-med. Did you always plan to go to med school after graduation?
Lindsey: Right now, I am preparing for the MCAT, which I will take this summer. I always played with the idea, but as I have grown and become a little more self-reflective, I have noticed qualities about myself that work well with the profession. I love being the last leg of a relay. It's really important to me to know that people can depend on me.
Q: If junior Lindsey Martin could tell freshman Lindsey Martin something, what would she say?
Lindsey: I feel like myself as a freshman wouldn't be surprised at what I am doing now. I would have been glad that I have been able to continue to drop time because a lot of people find that difficult to do in college. I would be happy that the girls in my grade on the team are all so close; I love that about our team. I would be relieved to see that I had chosen a major and that that was going well. I am a firm believer that things work out if you just keep your eyes open and work hard. I tend not to stress out too much about the future. Stuff works out for the best.
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