When athletes step foot on to a college campus for their freshman season, there aren’t a lot of expectations for them to meet.
They don’t feel burdened by pressures that stats or prior performances can sometimes provide.
Whether they do well or not in that first year, there’s a hunger to be better than they were.
In either case, they have to work hard and find new challenges to improve upon what they have already accomplished.
Amherst College sophomore distance swimmer Maeve Kelley, a Shady Side Academy grad, has embraced both to become one of the top performers for the Division III Mammoths.
“I come from a background in coaching Division I men,” said head coach Connor Beaulieu, who has won four conference championships as an assistant coach, most recently helping lead Georgetown to a Big East Championship.
“We really like to present challenges and workouts that raise the competition. The longer, easier recovery days, are ones Maeve doesn’t enjoy as much. She likes the harder practices, likes to race, and finds a lot of joy in accomplishing hard tasks in the water.”
Added Kelley: “It’s just something I was born with. I’m never satisfied knowing I’m taking the easy way out. I’m always looking for a way to work as hard as I can because I know it will pay off in the long run. It’s the same in the classroom. I’m always taking the harder classes.”
Kelley who swims primarily the 500-yard freestyle, the 1,000-yard free and the mile (1,650 yards) has already seen her hard work pay off. Last year she was named an all-American and freshman of the year in the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC).
“Swimming can sometimes be an unforgiving sport,” said Kelley, who was a three-time WPIAL champion in the 500 freestyle and two-time WPIAL gold medalist in the 200 free. “You spend a lot of long hours in the pool to only drop maybe a tenth of a second in some events. When you have those moments where you have that tangible representation of your success, it can be really beneficial to let you know to keep going and that you’re on the right track.”
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On top of her rookie of the year award, Kelley also went on to post personal best times in three events, set two school records and placed in the top five in the conference championships.
“Everything just clicked for her last year,” Beaulieu said.
In the postseason NESCAC and NCAA Division III championships, Kelley swam a 4:51.48 in the 500 free and placed fourth in the NCAAs, setting a new personal best by seven seconds.
Then, she swam a 16:52.96 in the mile and placed second again in the NESCAC championships and 13th at the NCAAs. It set a new school record in the event and was a 15- to 17-second drop from her previous best time.
Finally, Kelley swam a 10:05.03 in the 1,000 free and placed second in the NESCAC championships. She beat her previous best time by 16 seconds.
The time was also a new school record, one that was held by Kendra Stern (Class of 2011), who was a four-time champion in the 100 free and the 200 free. She won 10 individual NCAA freestyle events and, when she graduated, held Division III records in the 100, 200 and 500. She also held five school records.
“She was an incredible person and swimmer from what I’ve heard. It was a really big honor to break her record,” Kelley said. “She was the best freestyler this program has seen. I beat her times in the 1,000 by four seconds and the mile by seven seconds.”
After all that she accomplished in her first year, Kelley, who is double majoring in economics and Spanish, had to face the question of “what’s next?” in her second season.
“She’s dug into the work more and taken on the responsibility of strength training, finding ways to get better both in the pool and out of the water for herself and take on the pressure that’s going to yield better results,” Beaulieu said.
Kelley has helped to lead the Amherst women’s swimming team to a 3-2 overall record and a 2-2 conference record. Her biggest meet of the year came Jan. 11 when she won in the 200 butterfly with a personal best time of 2:06.60 and the 500 free at Williams College, which is Amherst’s biggest rival.
“She’s one of our most reliable swimmers,” Beaulieu said. “You can throw her in any event and know she can race the other team’s best and win the event by a large margin.”
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But the 200 fly isn’t a distance swim, which is Kelley’s forte. It’s all a part of what Beaulieu sees for the future for not just his team, but Kelley’s development.
“We’re still learning how to swim other events that I feel she’ll be better at,” Beaulieu explained. “We’re developing her 200 fly and her 200 free, getting sharper in those shorter distance events that we’re going to rely on her with a new group coming in next year to be a deeper and more talented team all around.
“It’s going to be really fun to see how good she can get at those events with her racing instinct and work ethic. It takes time to learn those things and build the strength to do that, and I’m excited to see where she goes with that.”
For an individual who loves to face the next challenge, Kelley is excited at the idea of swimming different events.
“I’ve always thought of myself as a distance swimmer,” Kelley said. “Getting in the water and grinding out an 8,000-yard practice. It’s been a fun experience to try out a new training style and it breaks the monotony of distance training. I love trying new things.”
Kelley will undoubtedly be breaking records in those shorter races in no time, but those swims will have to wait until next season as the NESCAC championships begin Feb. 13 and the NCAAs on March 19.
“That’s where all of our focus and attention now lies,” Beaulieu said. “Maeve and I have spent a lot of time discussing goals and what she wants to accomplish this year and the things that go into that.
“The biggest difference is understanding how big of a task it is to do what she wants to do, which is win at the highest levels of Division III and still do all the parts necessary knowing that she might not.”
Kelly said: “I like to think of it in terms of not putting too much pressure on myself. I look at last year like, ‘Wow, I had a great season and accomplished more than I thought I would.’ I wanted to come into my sophomore year with the same mindset I did last year — swim for fun and swim for my teammates.”