University of Tennessee Athletics
Senior Swimmers Reflect on Careers at NCAAs
March 24, 2010 | Women's Swimming & Diving
March 24, 2010
By Zach Stipe, Media Relations Graduate Assistant
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - For Tennessee senior swimmer Alex Barsanti dreams do come true.
As a 10-year-old swimming for her club team, she started writing down her goals for her career each season at her coach's urging.
Some of the feats she scribbled down year after year were to qualify for the Olympic Trials, make an individual final at the NCAA Championships and to swim under one-minute in the 100y breast.
After the 2010 NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships last weekend, consider those missions accomplished.
"My club coach had us fill out these goal sheets as far back as I can remember," Barsanti said. "But I never thought about the end. I would just write down things that I thought would be cool. I kept writing down those goals, and I never saw that path to reaching them until I came to Tennessee two years ago. One of those goals was making a final in an individual event at NCAAs. That was something I dreamed about as a kid and it happened this weekend."
The Hummelstown, Pa., native competed at the 2008 Olympic Trials in Omaha, Neb., two summers ago, and checked off those other goals in the past month. She nabbed a sub-minute readout in the 100y breast (59.97) en route to taking second in the 100y breast at the SEC Championships on Feb. 19, and competed in the finals of that same event - taking eighth to earn individual All-America honors - at Purdue's Boilermaker Aquatic Center last Friday night.
Barsanti originally enrolled at Clemson out of Hershey High School, but decided to transfer and was blown away by Tennessee on her visit to the campus.
She was one of three Lady Vols, who wrapped up their careers this past weekend, joining fellow seniors Michele King and Jamie Saffer at the national meet. All three were co-captains this season along with classmate Bryttany Curran, who was named to the SEC Community Service Team.
"They've all been tremendous leaders," Lady Vol head coach Matt Kredich said. "It's impossible to overstate what they've meant to the program in terms of courage, competitiveness and persistence. They've represented us well, especially at the NCAA meet."
They will leave the Orange and White having spearheaded an unprecedented stretch of success for the Tennessee women's swimming and diving program. UT finished in the top-four of the conference meet and the top-15 of the NCAA Championships ever year of their careers.
As Kredich said: "That's a heck of a senior class we're losing."
Saffer set the UT-record and won the SEC Championship in the 100y breast 2009, and was a four-time All-American.
"I'm really proud of what being a Lady Vol made me as a person," Saffer said. ""I will never look back and say, `What if I had gone somewhere different?' I'm really thankful for all of the people I've come in contact with here. They've made me a better, more resilient person."
The native of Roswell, Ga., joined King on the 200y medley relay that finished third at the 2009 national meet - the highest relay finish ever for a UT team until this season.
Last Friday night, Barsanti and King teamed with underclassmen Jenny Connolly and Kelsey Floyd to better that placement by one spot, snatching runner-up honors in the sprint medley quartet.
It was one of three All-America awards Barsanti captured in her career and part of the UT-record 11 First Team All-America accolades King acquired during her spectacular time in Knoxville. The York, Pa. native finished her career with 21 total All-America certificates, second-most in Tennessee history.
She also caps her career as the UT record-holder in all five relays and the 50y free and 100y free.
"Michele has meant everything to this team," Kredich said. "She's never done anything other than her best and she is one of the all-time greats, and we won't be able to replace her."
But King doesn't expect the Lady Vols to skip a beat without her. She points to the potential of Connolly, a sophomore, and Floyd, a freshman, who she expects to wipe her name from the UT record books.
"Jenny and Kelsey are right behind me," King said. "I'm proud of what I have given to this team, and I hope those two continue to uphold the Lady Vol tradition and break every record in the books."
For Barsanti, that pride takes her back to when she was a little girl writing her goals with her coach, and she can't believe how far she has come.
"I stop and think about it, and it's so cool," she said. "I've had a career that not many people get to have. If somebody would've asked me my freshman year how my collegiate career would end, I would've never believed this would be it. It's been so exciting. I almost can't put words to it all. It's just been amazing."
