University of Minnesota Athletics
Training Change Pays off for Waddell
2/20/2017 12:00:00 AM | Women's Swimming & Diving
Bonus Reading: Mitchell Republic Article on Waddell
On her way to the Big Ten Championships at Purdue, Gophers freshman Tevyn Waddell could not have imagined what was going to happen in the next several days. On the return trip, Waddell was toting five Big Ten medals and the conference's freshman of the year award.
"I knew going into it that I was ranked well, but I feel like at a meet like this you can't really go based off the psych sheet and how you're ranked," Waddell said. "You just have to go in and do your best and hope for the best. It went a lot better than what I expected, for sure."
The Mitchell, S.D., native opened her first conference championships by leading off Minnesota's Big Ten record-setting 200-yard medley relay, which won gold in 1:35.55 and automatically qualified for the NCAA Championships. Waddell earned a bronze as part of the 800 freestyle relay that same night.
On the second night of the meet, she set the Minnesota 100 backstroke record in 51.56 seconds to help the Gophers break the school record in the relay in a second-place 3:30.70.
On Friday night, Waddell started the session competing in the "A" final of the 100 butterfly. But her biggest moment of the night was yet to come. Her best event, the 100 backstroke, was the final individual swimming event of the night.
In lane 3, Waddell touched first in a photo finish. Her time of 52.09 beat Michigan's Clara Smiddy by .02 seconds. When Waddell saw the scoreboard, she couldn't contain her smile. After shaking hands with fellow finalists, the beaming freshman climbed out of the pool and shared an emotional group hug with teammates.
"I knew going into the meet that I was ranked first, so I was hoping," Waddell said. "But I honestly didn't really think I would actually do it, especially because I was swimming next to someone like Clara Smiddy, who won it last year, and Beata Nelson, who has kicked my butt through high school. ...I'm happy that I had my team there so I could celebrate with them, too."
Waddell set the South Dakota state record in the 100 back in high school, but shaved more than two seconds off that time to set the Gophers' record. She made one big adjustment that she feels had the biggest impact on her success as her freshman year progressed.
"I had really bad underwaters back home," Waddell said. "I used to do maybe one, two off every wall. But coming here and having (head coach) Kelly (Kremer) try and get us to do six off every wall, every practice, no matter what we're doing, that really helped me a lot."
Waddell also made the "A" final in the 200 backstroke, anchored the third-place 400 freestyle relay and helped the 200 freestyle relay qualify for NCAAs in a time trial.
While Waddell was cooling down after the 400 free relay, Kremer approached and told her he thought she had a chance to win the Big Ten Freshman of the Year award.
"I've never even gotten Freshman of the Week this whole season," Waddell said. "I thought it was way out of the question."
But then she heard the words "from Minnesota" over the public address system, and loud cheers from the Maroon and Gold contingent at the pool. The congratulations for the award and her 100 back title kept Waddell's phone busy.
"I had texts from people I didn't even know," she said. "People were sharing and commenting and messaging me. I didn't know who half these people were but they were just congratulating me on my meet and everything that's happened. It's awesome to know that people who I don't even know were watching me swim."
There were plenty of congratulations to go around, as the Gophers earned 13 medals as a team and had representatives in almost every "A" final.
"A lot of people were surprised by how they swam," she said. "I've heard from seniors and juniors and coaches that this is one of the most fun Big Tens they have ever been to. I think that's one of the reasons we swam so well, is that we were having fun together and supporting each other. If you're having fun and you're loving what you're doing, you're going to swim well."
After the excitement of the conference meet, the Gophers are already back in the pool getting ready for the NCAA Championships, and--hopefully--more pleasant surprises.
"I'm excited for NCAAs and I'm excited for our relays to see how we do, especially the 200 medley relay," Waddell said. "I think Minnesota's going to surprise a lot of people there."
BIG TEN REWIND
- Kierra Smith posted the fifth-fastest time ever recorded in the 200-yard breaststroke, finishing second in 2:04.37 to break her own Minnesota record. She won bronze in the 100 in 58.95, in which freshman Lindsey Horejsi (58.90) finished second.
- The Gophers scored 182 of their points in the breaststroke races, with 95 of those points coming in the 100.
- Yu Zhou was named Big Ten Diver of the Championships for the third consecutive year after winning gold on both springboards and bronze on the platform. Zhou won a total of seven Big Ten gold medals, one silver medal and one bronze in her nine career Big Ten Championships events.
- All five Gophers relays qualified for the NCAA Championships. Minnesota opened the meet with a Big Ten record-breaking victory in the 200 medley relay. Waddell, Horejsi, Danielle Nack and Zoe Avestruz clocked in at 1:35.55.
- Minnesota turned in 13 medal performances, five more than at least year's conference meet. This year's medals included four in relays, three more than last season.
Players Mentioned
