The Morning Swim Show, Dec. 6, 2011: Stephanie Peacock Among Contenders for 500 Free NCAA Title

PHOENIX, Arizona, December 6. UNIVERSITY of North Carolina sophomore Stephanie Peacock joins today's edition of The Morning Swim Show.

Peacock had the fastest time in the collegiate ranks in the 500 freestyle at the time this interview was recorded, and she talks about how she's been training to swim so fast. She also talks about her aspirations career-wise outside the pool. Watch the full show in the video player below and visit SwimmingWorld.TV for more video interviews.

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Show Transcript: (Note: This is an automated service where some typos and grammatical errors may occur.)

Peter Busch: This is the Morning Swim Show for Tuesday, December 6th, 2011. I'm your host Peter Busch. In the FINIS Monitor today we'll talk to Stephanie Peacock. The North Carolina sophomore has the fastest 500 in college so far this season. Stephanie joins us right now in the FINIS Monitor from Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Hey, Stephanie, welcome to the Morning Swim Show. How are you?

Stephanie Peacock: Hi, Peter. Thank you for having me. I'm pretty good. How are you?

Peter Busch: 4:35.7 already? That's just three seconds off the NCAA record.

Stephanie Peacock: Yeah.

Peter Busch: It's safe to say that's the goal this season?

Stephanie Peacock: Yeah. Yeah, I was actually hoping to shoot for a best time. So I was really happy with that.

Peter Busch: What did you learn from your freshman year, which was sort of an up and down year?

Stephanie Peacock: Yeah. Well, definitely going into NCAA last year, I learned that that's the really fast meet and that I definitely need to be really prepared for it. So I definitely learned a lot from that meet, the experience from that, I got a lot out of it. So I was really happy that I made it tentatively last year so I got to learn a lot from it. Definitely the training environment is a lot different than, you know, club team swimming and I really enjoyed it. Everyone just gets really fired up. So I definitely learned a lot from my freshman year.

Peter Busch: For any freshman in college, what would you say difference in environment, intensity, and just what to expect between conference meet and if they make it to the NCAA meet?

Stephanie Peacock: I would definitely say that the conference meet, definitely every conference is gonna be a very fast and intense meet. But going into NCAA is a completely different mindset to have. You definitely have to be ready for it, you know. You gotta like perform your best in the morning because if you wanna make it back at night. The college environment is completely, like, it's somewhat what I expected. The training atmosphere is amazing. I love it. Everyone at every practice is always ready to go. There is, like, so much to court that you have with coaches and from your teammate. So you can always expect whether you swim well or not so well that you always have that to court. That's definitely what I learned from my freshman year.

Peter Busch: Last time North Carolina had such a great distance swimmer was probably Whitney Sprague. Is she still swimming at all?

Stephanie Peacock: No, she's not swimming.

Peter Busch: Okay. I always remember that year that she almost won the mile swimming out of one of the preliminary heats.

Stephanie Peacock: Yeah.

Peter Busch: Lesson learned, you never know.

Stephanie Peacock: Yeah.

Peter Busch: Describe what kind of training you do. I mean, I'm sure for distance swimmer it's a lot of yardage, but I mean, how would describe, what's the typical maybe set for you or set that you've done recently that you really were proud of?

Stephanie Peacock: We usually do a lot of 200s and 400s. A typical set would probably be around like maybe 200s on a fast interval, so it's like kinda touch and go like kinda hold like a good time, the best average. Usually, my training is — I'm in the mid distance part of the distance groups so I usually don't do as much as new training as other people do, but I also do — I do a good amount of yardage and a couple times a week I work with power, like the power groups, so I'll do power tower cord. That's kinda helped me with my speed as well, my 200, so that's usually what I do.

Peter Busch: So you'll be like 2 5 in 100 swimmer or will you do the mile or one of 200 strokes?

Stephanie Peacock: Yeah, I usually — I trained for the 200 and the 500 but I will be doing the mile this year. That will be my third event.

Peter Busch: Wow.

Stephanie Peacock: Yeah.

Peter Busch: What's your swimming background?

Stephanie Peacock: You mean background as…?

Peter Busch: Yeah, where you from?

Stephanie Peacock: About my training?

Peter Busch: Yeah, where're you from and how long you have been swimming?

Stephanie Peacock: Okay. Well, I'm Fort Myers, Florida, and I've been swimming since I was ten years old. And I didn't start competitive swimming till I was bout in my — in eighth grade so. But I come from a club team, some in Florida with Mac Kennedy that has every classes with a ton of yards. So I'm used to, like, the amount of yards that we do here. So that was definitely an easier transition I think for me than most people was I was already used to the amount of yards that we do. So that was definitely good for me so that, yeah.

Peter Busch: Where do you want do outside the pool someday?

Stephanie Peacock: Actually, I'm majoring in exercise and sport finance for nursing. So I wanna work in a children hospital. I love children, so…

Peter Busch: Very commendable.

Stephanie Peacock: Yeah.

Peter Busch: Well, there's a couple great ones out here in Phoenix. You're welcome anytime.

Stephanie Peacock: Oh, okay, I'll have to look into that.

Peter Busch: Well, Stephanie, good luck the rest of the season. Thank you very much for joining us.

Stephanie Peacock: Thank you.

Peter Busch: All right, that's Stephanie Peacock from North Carolina joining us in the FINIS Monitor. That is it for today's show. I'm Peter Busch reminding you to keep your head down at the finish.

Stephanie Peacock: Thank you.

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