Navy’s Tara Chapmon: Distancing Herself in the Record Books

Special to Swimming World by Justin Kischefsky

ANNAPOLIS, Maryland, February 12. AS the awards program following the conclusion of the 2008 Patriot League swimming and diving championship was taking place, Navy's Tara Chapmon was seated amongst her teammates on the Lejeune Hall pool deck. With three long days of competition that led to a second-place showing at the meet now behind them, the Mids were starting to kick back, relax and unwind during the proceedings.

That all changed when the following announcement was heard from the public address system:

"And the winner of the Female Swimmer-of-the-Meet Award … from Navy … Tara Chapmon!"

The calm, cool and collected Navy bench quickly turned into a mosh pit with Chapmon at the center of it all. After fighting her way through her excited teammates from both the women's and men's programs offering celebratory hugs and cheers, a somewhat stunned and noticeably emotional Chapmon made her way to the area near the diving well to accept her well-deserved award.

"I was thinking about how far I had come as a swimmer; from being the worst swimmer on my first team to being named the swimmer of the meet in the league. It really meant a lot to me," said Chapmon of her thoughts and emotions while walking to the awards area.

The second of Jerry and Mary Chapmon's two daughters, Chapmon began swimming when she was young. With being a part of a military family –– her father was an enlisted member of the Navy for 12 years before becoming an officer; he now holds the rank of commander and is assigned to the Annapolis Naval Station while her mom works for Fleet Family Services –– moving was a way of life for the Chapmon's. Swimming allowed Tara to immediately become a member of a team wherever the family called home.

"When you move eight or nine times, it is hard to be on a team like soccer or softball because you have to be a part of that team for so long to learn a new way of doing things, improve and get to know your teammates," said Chapmon. "That's not the case in swimming. You can just jump into a new pool."

The early stages of her swimming career began when she was around seven years old and the family lived in Coronado, Calif. To say Chapmon had a rough go of it when she first began swimming would be an understatement.

"I started swimming on a club team, but I was awful. I was the kid everyone clapped for when they finally finished. The direct quote from my first coach to my mom was that I was ‘the most uncoordinated swimmer she had ever seen,'" said a laughing Chapmon.

With a few more years of seasoning under her belt, Chapmon was starting to make some progress until a broken hand at age 11 slowed her down. Once she returned to the pool, however, things started to take off for her.

"After I returned to swimming, my coach completely changed my stroke. I dropped so much time after that," said Chapmon.

She continued swimming all through high school and kept getting better. When it was eventually time for her to start thinking about colleges, Chapmon methodically weighed what was important for her in a school. In the end, Navy wasn't just high on her list, it WAS the list. It would be the only school she would apply to. Despite some anxiousness for the entire family during the waiting period since there wasn't a plan ‘B,' Chapmon learned in the spring of 2006 that she was officially accepted for the Class of 2010.

Chapmon had an impressive freshman season at Navy in the pool. After totaling 28 event wins during Navy's dual meet season, she won the 200 freestyle and placed second in both the 500 and 1,650 free at the Patriot League Championship. Her winning time of 1:50.19 in the finals of the 200 free set a new Navy and league record, with her 500 free clocking of 4:54.70 also setting a new school standard. She also was a member of Navy's victorious 800 freestyle relay team at the championship, which helped Navy win the program's league-best ninth team crown.

"My freshman year was exciting," recalled Chapmon. "I hadn't dropped as much time in one year as I did that season. I had never trained with weights until I came to Navy, so that was a big factor in my improvement, especially my sprinting."

She would match her regular season victory total during her sophomore year and head into the 2008 league meet as one of the favorites in each of her three events. Day one of the three-day championship had her competing in the 500 freestyle against American's Meghan Thiel. Thiel not only held the league record in the event, she also was attempting to win the race for a fourth consecutive year.

Swimming in different heats during the morning trial session, Chapmon posted the fastest overall time in the event (a new Navy record of 4:49.42), while Thiel recorded the second-best clocking (4:51.87). Additionally, Navy's Allison Ranzau put up the third-fastest time of the session. This meant Chapmon would swim in the middle of the pool, with Thiel on one side of her and Ranzau on the other.

The importance of this was not lost on either Chapmon or Ranzau.

"Allison and I wanted to finish first and second in the final," remembered Chapmon. "After the trial heats were done we must have spent 20 or 30 minutes staring at the splits together, plotting out which parts of the final we needed to push ourselves in. We worked so hard on it because we were so nervous."

"We were both a little surprised at how fast we swam in the trial heats," said Ranzau. "We realized going 1-2 in the final wouldn't be easy, but it was possible if we really put our minds to it. We stared at the splits from the morning for a long time, taking mental notes on who would go out fast and who would have a strong back half of the race. We then realized how bad we want to finish first and second, not just for us but for the team."

Chapmon held an uncomfortably small lead over the neck-and-neck Ranzau and Thiel over the first half of the race. At the 300-yard time check, however, Chapmon had expanded her lead to seven-tenths of a second over Ranzau, with nearly another second separating Ranzau from Thiel. With just 100 yards remaining, Chapmon had increased her lead over Ranzau to two seconds and her teammate had opened up a 1.2-second advantage over Thiel. In the end, Chapmon won the race with a new Navy and league record time of 4:46.70, Ranzau placed second in a clocking of 4:49.74 and Thiel finished in third place with a time of 4:52.04.

"Being able to finish first and second with Allison was the best part about winning that race," said Chapmon. "She and I train together and she is my best friend on the team, so to do what we did was very special."

"Seeing that we were 1-2 was one of the most exciting moments of the meet for me," said Ranzau.

The Chapmon-Ranzau duo served notice to the rest of the swimmers at the meet that they were not finished after the opening day of the championship. The following morning saw Chapmon break her own Navy and league standard in the 200 free with a time of 1:49.33. Ranzau, meanwhile, posted the second-best time of the heats with a clocking of 1:50.22, meaning they would again be in adjacent lanes during the finals that night.

Chapmon and Ranzau immediately opened up a lead of one second over the rest of the field after just 50 yards of the final. They expanded it slightly more at the midpoint of the race and then pulled out to a two-and-one-half second margin over everyone else heading into the last 50 yards. In the end, Chapmon successfully defended her title in the race with another record-setting time of 1:48.82, with Ranzau winning the silver medal with a clocking of 1:49.50.

Chapmon would not enjoy the luxury of Ranzau's presence during her final event of the championship, the 1,650 freestyle that would be contested on the third and last day of the meet. Even more nerve wracking for Chapmon was the fact that she would again be faced with having to compete against Thiel, who already had three league crowns in this event to her credit.

The two swimmers were virtually even with each other through the early part of the race. Gradually, though, Chapmon started picking up a tenth of a second on one leg, two-tenths on another and finally held a modest advantage of two seconds after 750 yards. It would grow to three seconds with just 300 yards remaining and she would eventually touch the wall for the very last time nearly nine seconds ahead of Thiel after winning the race with another Navy and league record time (16:34.63). Additionally, Chapmon's split time broke the Navy record in the 1,000 freestyle by nearly seven seconds.

"All year Tara had focused on racing for the league title in her events," said Navy women's swimming head coach John Morrison of Chapmon's performance at the championship. "Meghan Thiel had set the bar very high with her league titles, her records and with having competed at the NCAA Championship. Tara knew she had to beat Meghan to accomplish her goals and she trained daily with this on her mind. With each race at the championship she just kept getting better. It was an incredible meet for her and our team."

"I never like to set time goals for me before a meet. My goal going into the championship was to win, no matter what my time was," replied Chapmon when asked if breaking as many records as she did was on her mind heading into the meet.

This season, Chapmon has picked where she left off at the end of the 2008 campaign. A four-time winner of the Patriot League Swimmer-of-the-Week award, she concluded the 2008-09 dual meet season having won 38 of 39 races. Her lone setback was finishing second to teammate Thuy-Mi Dinh in the 100 free by 1.12 seconds. Dinh holds the Navy and league record in both sprint freestyle events and competed in each at the 2008 NCAA Championship and the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials.

Perhaps Chapmon's best weekend of the season took place in late November at the Terrapin Cup Invitational in College Park. She lowered her own Navy and league records in winning the 200 and 500 freestyle races, and her winning time in the 1,650 free was the second-fastest time in school history.

"I was not expecting to go that fast," said Chapmon of her effort at the Terrapin Cup. "Those were the best times of my life and I wasn't even rested for the meet. (Assistant coach) Rob (Lias) told me I could do it, but I didn't believe him."

Chapmon has continued her assault of the Navy middle and long distance records all season long. In addition to holding the school record in each, she now has posted seven of the 10 fastest times at Navy in the 200 freestyle, seven of the top-10 times in the 500 free, seven of the 10 best 1,000 free clockings and four of the top-10 times in the 1,650 free. Of those combined 25 times, 11 of them were set this season alone.

Away from the pool, Chapmon also has seen a steady climb in her grade-point average since her arrival at Navy. An oceanography major, she posted a 3.78 grade-point average during the 2008 fall semester.

The hard work and desire to improve herself in all facets of her life has not gone unnoticed by those around her.

"Tara is a great teammate and is evolving into a tremendous leader," said Morrison. "Her confidence in practices and meets spill over to the team and she inspires them to train and compete well. As a leader, she is extremely intelligent and compassionate with everyone she meets. She is going to be a wonderful officer."

"One of my favorite things about training with Tara is her attitude," said Ranzau. "There are days when everyone comes in a little worried about tough practices. Tara is always one of the first to reassure everyone that it won't be as bad as we think it will be. She is always pushing everyone during the sets, whether they are going first in a lane or last. Her happy go lucky personality always puts everyone in a good mood. She pushes me past limits I thought I had, always brings good energy to practice and is an obvious leader among the team."

As for her service selection interest, Chapmon is excited about the possibility of joining the surface warfare community.

"I like the leadership opportunities available to surface warfare officers," said Chapmon. "I also like the humanitarian missions I could be a part of within the community. After my military career is done, I could see myself joining the Peace Corps."

With the start of her military service well over 15 months away, Chapmon has set more immediate goals for herself. First up will be the opportunity to defend her titles at next week's Patriot League Championship Meet (Feb. 19-21) at Bucknell. Additionally, Chapmon, who has posted a number of NCAA ‘B' cut qualifying times during her career, hopes to join Dinh as Mids who have competed at the NCAA Championship.

"I want to compete at the NCAA Championship," said Chapmon. "It's so hard to do because a lot of it depends upon the times other swimmers around the country put up, but that's a goal I have set for myself before my career ends."

Those around her don't doubt that she will accomplish her goal before she finishes her career.

"Tara has come a long way in her swimming over the past three years," said Morrison. "Her drops in time have been extraordinary. It is a testament to her confidence and commitment in our program and her willingness to challenge herself every day to become better in all that she does.

"I truly believe that her best swimming is ahead of her. She is just realizing that she is a good swimmer and beginning the steps to become a great swimmer."

"Tara can do anything she sets her mind to," said Ranzau.

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