Mizzou coach Greg Rhodenbaugh believes swimming is a process. He wants his swimmers to train hard and believe in his system. If they do, he believes that they will take steps forward.
Rhodenbaugh feels that sophomore Hannah Stevens is a perfect example of his swimming philosophy.
“She’s kind of a microcosm of our program over the last five years,” he said. “We just keep taking steps forward and now we have people that, if they take one more step, they have a shot at making the national team or the Olympic team.”
Stevens’ big step forward came this summer at the Region VIII Summer Sectionals meet, a regional swimming competition. Stevens dropped nearly two seconds in the 100 meter backstroke, going a time of 1:00.04. At that point, it was the second fastest time by an American in 2015.
Stevens followed up that performance by placing fifth at the prestigious Phillips 66 National Championships. Though her time was not as fast as what she posted at Sectionals, she learned from the experience. Overall, Stevens is thrilled with the progress she made this summer.
“I’m pretty excited about it,” she said. “It’s something I never really expected to happen … coming out of the summer I have so much to take away.”
This year, the top six swimmers in every event were named to the U.S. National Team on Sept. 1. Stevens made the cut in the 100-meter backstroke.
As happy as she is with this honor, Stevens is still looking for ways to get better.
“We’re always looking to improve on this and that and technique or walls,” she said. “We’re always just looking to get better and better.”
One thing that will help Stevens improve is the strength of her backstroke training partners. Dominique Bouchard is a Mizzou graduate and placed in the top eight at World Championships in the 200-meter backstroke while representing Canada. Bouchard still trains with the Tigers. Additionally, junior Nadine Laemmler transferred to Mizzou from Western Kentucky. Laemmler qualified for the 2015 NCAA Championship meet in both the 100- and 200-meter backstroke.
To swim at such a high level, Stevens has to fight through large amounts of pain. She said the 100-meter backstroke is extremely tiring for her legs.
“It hurts so bad,” Stevens said. “By the last 25 (meters), you can’t move your legs. You get done, you try to jump out of the water and your legs are shaking because it hurts so bad.”
Despite the pain, Stevens enjoys the sport as much as possible. Rhodenbaugh feels that her attitude is infectious and makes her a strong teammate.
“She keeps things really light during workout and on the pool deck,” Rhodenbaugh said. “She’s very supportive to her teammates and that’s kind of the biggest thing.”
Last season, Stevens suffered a high ankle sprain. For six weeks, she could not kick during practice. This hampered her toward the end of the season and made training especially difficult leading up to Southeastern Conference Championships and NCAA Championships.
Now that she is fully healthy, Rhodenbaugh feels Stevens is on her way to another big jump this season. With her positive mentality and strong kick, he sees a bright future for her in the sport of swimming.
“She’s a talented swimmer, but there’s all kinds of talented swimmers that don’t succeed and because of her work ethic and her attitude, she can take another step and probably another step and another step,” Rhodenbaugh said. “The longer she stays in the sport, and she’s pretty young in the college part of it, she’s going to get better and better.”
