COLLEGE WOMEN'S SWIMMING: LONG JOURNEY FROM YOUTH SWIMMER TO COLLEGE NATIONAL RUNNER-UP FOR HORSEHEADS' VERKLEEREN (2022-03-29)

By Brian Fees
Southern Tier Sports Report
Sophia Verkleeren remembers the moment well.

She was 10 years old, swimming for the Horseheads Thrashers swimming right next to former Notre Dame star Molly Craig.

Who would have guessed that years later the two would be teammates at Williams College. Both earning All-American honors, both earning top two finishes at nationals (Craig a national champion in the 400 IM) and both swimming in some of the same events, and even teaming up on the same relays.

“Molly and I were on the same club team which is Horseheads Thrashers,” Verkleeren said. “It’s where we really both grew as swimmers and developed a love for the sport. She’s older than me. I remember being 10 years old in lane one and her lapping me 50 times I’n the 500 because she was like 15 (years old).

“I’ve always looked up to Molly. I think watching her win the 400 IM at nationals had to be one of the best races I ever watched. She worked so hard for so much. I am so glad she brought me to Williams. I can’t wait to see what she does next. I have looked up to her my whole career.”

For Verkleeren her former club teammate is a big part of the reason she’s at Williams.

“I didn’t really even know about Williams until she committed,” Verkleeren said. “When she committed I looked into it and was like, I love the school and ended up there. It’s really nice having her on the team, she’s just a great teammates and a great person overall.”


A HUGE FRESHMAN YEAR
While it may have been her former club teammate that led her to Williams, the Horseheads graduate is certainly starting to make a huge name for herself with Williams swimming.

Verkleuren had a runner-up finish at nationals in the 200 backstroke with a time of 1:58.21, it was a personal best time for the Horseheads graduate and it was her third individual All-American finish of the meet.

The Horseheads graduate was fourth in the 100 back in 55.11 and she joins Craig in the 800 free relay that took third in 7:24.50.

Verkleeren swam right with Craig in the 200 IM with Verkleeren taking fourth in 2:01.29, one spot and .15 ahead of Craig, who took fifth.

Verkleeren also was part of the 200 medley relay that broke the school and conference record, taking fourth in 1:40.91.

Overall Verkleeren was a five-time All-American in her first national meet, including three individual events.

“It feels great, I didn’t really go into the season with a lot of expectations, so I was pleasantly surprised with the results,” Verkleeren said.

For the Horseheads grad taking second in the nation in the 200 back was something she didn’t see coming.

Verkleuren had really struggled with her backstroke over the past two years and it was a long process to get to where she was at nationals.

“I was not expecting it,” she said. “The 200 backstroke was kind of an event I had struggled with throughout senior year (of high school) and honestly throughout this year to. My backstroke technique has changed a lot.

“Basically throughout the pandemic my backstroke technique changed and my tempo got faster and it hurt my 200 back. I remember last summer I went to a championship meet and added 14 seconds to my back. Feeling like I got my 200 back was great. I think I was seeded 10th. What was going through my head that morning was if I don’t make it back to finals it would be okay.”

With her struggling with her technique in the prelims Verkleeren just swam her race and didn’t worry about what anyone else was doing.

“My 200 backstroke was struggling that morning,” Verkleeren said. “I was trying to remember what my race strategy used to feel like. I swam it how I knew how instead of focusing on my competitors. I broke 2:00 for the first time and it was a really great race, probably one of my favorites out of my whole career.”

The whole national experience was fun for Verkleeren.

“I was really happy with my national performance, my teammates were supportive to,” Verkleeren said. “Overall it was a great meet, it was lots of fun.”


A QUICK STUDY AT THE COLLEGE LEVEL
While things are different at the college level, Verkleeren always felt like she should have a chance to compete.

For Verkleeren she always enjoyed swimming at Horseheads, but college is different. At Williams there are three full-time swim coaches, all of whom have the type of experience you’ll rarely find at the high school level.

Head coach Steve Kuster was a two-time Division I All-American at the University of Pennsylvania and he was a consolation finalist at the U.S. Olympic Trials in the 200 fly. He has 22 years of experience as the head coach at Williams.

Assistant coach Allie Clark has been with the program since 2018, and was a captain and all-conference swimmer at Carleton.

Dan MacQuarrie coached at Cortland, Ithaca and Stevens before Williams and he was a conference finalist and record holder as a swimmer at Cortland.

“I think I was pretty confident,” she said. “I thought I would have a good season freshman year because I know my training intensity was going to be ramped up.

“I feel like here (in high school) I didn’t have the tools to reach my full potential, because there isn’t as many resources in the area for swimmers. Going into freshman year I expected to do well because there is great coaches there, the training intensity has increased. I felt like I was going to do good this year, but I definitely exceeded my expectations, which is really a good feeling.”

One of the other things that helps in college is having great swimmers throughout the roster.

In high school every team is full of athletes who are dedicated to the sports, and others who might be using the sport to stay in shape for other sports, or to get exercise.

At a school like Williams everyone on the team was one of the stars of their high school program.

“It is very different,” Verkleeren said. “I think it makes a big difference. It does make a difference to have lots of people as fast as you in practice. It’s good to have the push to race in a set. The big difference is the dedication level. Everyone (in college) is committed as you are. Everyone at the pool, at every practice is as committed as you are. You are pushing each other to reach your goals I can’t really express how grateful I am for my teammates.”

Being a part of some of the Williams relays was extra special for Verkleeren.

“Being on an Eph relay is so much fun,” Verkleeren said. “I’m so motivated by my teammates in the relays. Seeing how hard they work all season, being alb hot jump in the pool and put down a fast relay is exciting. Our medley relay is coming back next year, so that’s going to be exciting to.”


PANDEMIC WAS HARD
For Verkleeren part of the struggle in high school was going through a pandemic.

It’s hard to have all the resources when you aren’t always at school, and can’t see your teammates and coaches all the time.

What made things tougher was that Horseheads had a coaching change while she was in school and then on top of that the coaches weren’t able to have regular practices at school. On top of that, most of the pools in the area were shut down for a while. So, with coaches not able to meet with the athletes for months at a time athletes had to communicate with each other if they wanted to work out.

What that meant for Verkleeren, as one of the veteran leaders on the Horseheads team, was trying to reach out to teammates to set up any workouts between the athletes.

Verkleeren was happy to do her part, but all the worries about finding a school, communicating with teammates and everything that came with the pandemic took a lot of the focus off of actual swimming.

“I think my senior year and junior year with the pandemic, I felt like I had to take on a lot of responsibility,” Verkleeren said. “Coaching changes, there was a coaching change my junior year, and then the pandemic shut a lot of pools down. I felt like I had to take a lot of responsibility to get people together, organize practices.

“It’s great, but I think it did distract from the swimming part of it. It’s nice now to be in a learning position, focusing on my goals and learning from great swimmers around me.”

It wasn’t just trying to find workouts during the pandemics, it’s also what happened when there were meets. There wasn’t a normal season for Verkleeren’s senior year. There weren’t all the big meets with competition throughout the state to race again.

“I love racing, that’s one of the biggest things I love at meets, I love racing,” Verkleeren said. “My senior year there was nothing going on really, not a lot of big meets. At the meets I did go to I wasn’t really performing well because I wasn’t racing. It’s nice to be back to racing, to have racing be normal again. It’s really nice, it’s a really good feeling. I’m glad my freshman year went the way it did.”

There was some adjustment to this year for Verkleeren, but as the season has gone on she got more comfortable. It helped that there was a build up over the course of the season so Verkleeren could work back into faster racing.

“It was definitely an adjustment,” Verkleeren said. “We started kind of slow. We had an intra squad meet, which was nice to start racing again. Something relaxed and low key, we had some dual meets, which weren’t high pressure.

“It’s definitely an adjustment. There was a time in January we were having meets every weekend. It was a big change from last year where I went 10 months not racing one time. It was a change, but it was a good change and I liked it.”


EVERYTHING COMES FULL CIRCLE
For Verkleeren that moment when she was 10 years old will always stick in her mind and she loves that she got to race with Craig in college.

It’s also fun for Verkleeren to see how far she has come over the years.

“That was a good moment,” Verkleeren said. “Horseheads just didn’t have a ton of people (for the Thrashers) so Molly and I were in the same lane when I was five years younger and she was kicking my butt. I raced Molly a lot in the IM (this year) and it’s fo fun. Watching her all these years, especially with everything she went through this year, I couldn’t be more proud of her. It’s nice to swim next to her one last time.”

For Craig, she didn’t get to train with Verkleeren a lot this year because of an auto immune disease that didn’t allow her to practice a lot.

But, it’s special for the Notre Dame grad to have her former club teammate as a college teammate for this season.

“I actually didn’t get to train a lot with Sophia at school, but I’m so happy for all her success,” Craig said. “She works extremely hard and deserves every bit of success that comes her way. I can’t wait to see what she does the next three years at Williams.

“We have faced a lot of similar obstacles in high school with swimming. We both trained on our own for periods of time and I think we fundamentally understand each other. We have this tenacity and competitiveness that comes with our background of being able to get through anything. We both have that competitive fire, she is such a racer and she’s awesome.”

For Verkleeren nationals was a chance to see a lot of familiar faces, including some old coaches and athletes she used to work with, and it was a special atmosphere.

“I really loved the energy of that meet,” Verkleeren said. “It’s nice walking into the meet and seeing people from all over the country. I saw a lot of people I have been swimming with for a while. It’s nice to see familiar faces and people from all over the country coming to this meet. It was just great energy, great atmosphere. Williams came ready to have fun and ready to race and it was a great time.”

Verkleeren has never really taken time off from swimming in the past, but this year she will probably take just a little bit of a break after nationals.

“I haven’t really planned it out yet,” she said. “It’s a little weird because in high school I’d train all year round. I’d take a few weeks off and go back to preparing for the summer season. Now that I’m not having a summer season I don’t know what I’ll do. I think I’ll take a few weeks off and get in the pool kind of casually.”

Now that she’s been a national runner-up, Verkleeren would love to win a national title next year, but she won’t put that kind of pressure on herself.

“I think that is definitely the eventual goal,” she said. “But, I try not to put pressure on myself saying next year I have to win a national title. I like to just focus on myself, train harder and get as fast as I can. If it gets me to a national title that’s great, but I try not to set the expectation for myself if can avoid it, but that would be nice.”

When she was younger Verkleeren didn’t know much about Williams until Craig committed there. Now, Verkleeren has had some former teammates reach out to her about what it’s like picking a college.

“There have been a few of them who have asked about the college recruitment process and what happens,” she said. “There is definitely a lot of promise on the high school team.”

Maybe, just maybe, there was a 10 year old girl that saw an older Verkleeren swim and one day will want to follow in her footsteps and swim in college.

“That is what I’m hoping, it would be nice to see more kids from Section 4 going to college swimming,” Verkleeren said. “It’s a great experience.”
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PHOTOS COURTESY OF SOPHIA VERKLEEREN.