Feature by Chelsea Howard<\/i><\/p>\n
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pennsylvania, March 20. AFTER the NCAA Division I Women's Championships came to a close, 14 pool records, six NCAA records, and six American records were broken. Of those 26 records, one stood out over some of the others. <\/p>\n
North Carolina sophomore Stephanie Peacock won the 1650-yard freestyle touching out three-time defending champion Wendy Trott of Georgia by .15 and breaking the 22-year old NCAA record set by Janet Evans back in 1990. Peacock clocked a 15:38.79, while Trott posted a 15:38.94. Evans' 1990 standard had stood since she set the mark in Austin, Texas with a 15:39.14. <\/p>\n
Every swimmer's mentality is slightly different when they go behind the blocks and get ready for their race. For this particular race, Peacock's mentality was full of excitement. <\/p>\n
“I was just excited to swim the race because I knew the competition would be good. I was also excited just to see what I could go,” Peacock said.<\/p>\n
When Peacock finished the race, she didn't know that she was a new record holder right away.<\/p>\n
“All I knew when I touched the wall was that I had won and it took me a minute to realize that I had broken the record. It was hard to process that I had just won the mile on top of breaking Janet Evans' record. I was so excited and happy,” Peacock said. <\/p>\n
Peacock swam the 200-yard freestyle, 200-yard butterfly, and the 500-yard freestyle as her main events during her freshman year. This year, she swapped out the 200-yard butterfly for the 1650-yard freestyle. There was not much of a change in her training; however, she did work a little more power into her sets.<\/p>\n
“We just kept my training the same since I train mostly for the 500 free. If anything changed, I actually trained less yardage and incorporated more power training into my sets,” Peacock said. <\/p>\n
Last year, Peacock was held back by a shoulder injury and spent most of the year fighting back from it. She placed 15th in the 500-yard freestyle at NCAA's. After overcoming adversity, Peacock came to NCAAs this year eager to compete and ended up placing 3rd in the 500-yard freestyle in addition to her outstanding performance in the 1650-yard freestyle. <\/p>\n
“My injury from last year definitely motivated me because I didn't get the place I wanted last year and I couldn't wait to see what I could do this year,” Peacock said. <\/p>\n
After breaking a record and becoming a national champion, Peacock will use these accomplishments as a confidence boost and motivation to train harder.<\/p>\n
“Setting a record like this as a sophomore makes me more motivated to train, especially since Trials is coming up. Getting this record was something I didn't expect so it makes me very excited for my next two NCAA's,” Peacock said.<\/p>\n
As part of a team, Peacock says she couldn't have done it without her teammates to help her along the way.<\/p>\n
“My teammates have helped me so much this year. Every day we motivate each other in practice and remind each other of our goals. It helps a lot to have such encouraging teammates. They've been with me through it all and I really wouldn't be here without them,” Peacock said.<\/p>\n
With Olympic Trials only a few months away, Peacock will get back to training after taking a little time off. <\/p>\n
“I'm going to take a week off so I can come back refreshed and ready to train again for trials,” Peacock said. <\/p>\n
Peacock competed at the 2008 Olympic Trials where she swam the 200-meter IM, 200-meter freestyle, and the 400-meter freestyle. This time around in the 2012 Olympic Trials, she will swim the 200-meter freestyle, 400- meter freestyle, and 800-meter freestyle. Peacock will go into the meet with a more confident mentality with an extra four years of experience. <\/p>\n
“This time I will be going into the meet focusing on making top eight and then we'll go from there. I'm really pumped for this summer's Olympic Trials,” Peacock said. <\/p>\n
Peacock has proven to be a hard worker through her success and is admired by many of her teammates.<\/p>\n
“Stephanie is probably one of the most hardworking girls I've ever trained with. She's amazing to watch and it's been a privilege to share my last two years with her. She's an incredibly humble person and deserves all of her success. I love being her teammate because she keeps swimming fun,” Candace Cooper, a senior from the University of North Carolina, said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Feature by Chelsea Howard UNIVERSITY PARK, Pennsylvania, March 20. AFTER the NCAA Division I Women's Championships came to a close, 14 pool records, six NCAA records, and six American records<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,17,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","category-commentary","category-zzzzzzzzz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n