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Lidstrom
captains swimmers
by Kenny Lucas
Jessica Lidstrom has been swimming all of her life, and whether
she competes in her native Sweden or as a member of the AU swimming
and diving team, the essentials of the sport remain pretty much
the same. Water’s wet. Work is hard. The faster you swim, the
better you feel. In fact the major difference the senior biology
major has found between competing at home and for AU has little
to do with her technical performance in the pool.
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| Jessica
Lidstrom |
“The team
spirit is different here than at home,” Lidstrom said. “In
Sweden, I’m used to swimming as an individual sport. Here,
it’s more team oriented, and I like that.”
Lidstrom stands as a perfect testament to swimming and diving’s
unique blend of teamwork and individualism. Twice the Patriot League
Scholar Athlete of the Year for swimming,
Lidstrom has the second fastest time in AU history in the 100 and
200 freestyle and is fifth all time in the 50 freestyle and sixth
in the 200 IM. After a bout of sinusitis hampered her at last year’s
Patriot League championships, Lidstrom entered this year with plenty
on her to-do list.
“I’m still trying to achieve personal goals time-wise,”
she said.
But as team captain, Lidstrom also understands that her role in
and out of the pool transcends her own achievements. When her teammates
are in the water for individual events, it’s up to Lidstrom
and the rest of the team to ensure there’s plenty of support
poolside. That’s never a problem with Coach Mark Davin’s
tight-knit bunch.
“We all really support each other,” Lidstrom said. “We’re
a very close team so it’s not hard to be a leader. We’re
all in it together, and we definitely all help each other and cheer
both in practice and in meets. We also spend a lot of time together
outside the pool.”
Swimming at the collegiate level is oceans apart from the average
Joe workout at the YMCA pool. Lidstrom and her teammates wake up
at 5:30 for a 6 a.m. practice, three times a week. After a day of
classes, they practice from 2:15 to 5 p.m. every afternoon, and
then they hit the dinner table, the books, and the bed.
“They’re usually pretty long days,” Lidstrom said.
“But we get into the schedule . . . Especially now with the
Patriot League championships coming up we’re encouraging everyone
to plan ahead so they’re not up all night studying for a test
or something.”
Such a strategy is as much about academic achievement as it is about
setting pool records. For the past eight years both the men’s
and women’s teams have earned College Swimming Coaches Association
of America awards for their combined GPAs. Last spring the men’s
squad ranked third nationally among Division I programs with a collective
GPA of 3.36, while the women were 12th nationally with a GPA of
3.40.
“We don’t really talk about it that openly,” Lidstrom
said of the academic achievements. “But I believe that when
we recruit people we make a point out of the academic standards
that we have on this team. With our schedule we need to make sure
people manage their time and their priorities.”
As she enters the final lap of her competitive career, Lidstrom
has her sights firmly set on a stellar Patriot League championship
meet. Because the team is smaller than its competitors, Lidstrom
said AU would be hard-pressed to collect enough points to contend
for the league championship, but she fully expected Eagle swimmers
to walk away with many individual wins. She also hopes Eagle faculty,
staff, and students will replicate the support they showed during
February’s Phil Reeves campaign and go to support the swimmers
at the championships in Annapolis Feb. 26–28.
Next year Lidstrom hopes to be doing graduate biology work at AU
in preparation for a career in research. She says she’ll stay
in touch with the team and will never be far from the pool “I
like knowing you’ve got meets and competition,” she said.
“But I love swimming so much that I’ll continue to do
it when that’s not there.”
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