As Occidental’s swim and dive season comes to an end, seniors are preparing to say their goodbyes to collegiate swimming. Diver Elsie Cady (senior), and swimmers Izzy Phung (senior), Joshua Spessert (senior) and Alex To (senior) share their biggest successes, their plans for the future and some of their favorite memories while on the Occidental swim and dive team. They all said that while they have had ups and downs with the sport, there is an overwhelming appreciation for their teammates.
Cady said she started diving her junior year of high school and is now competing in the one-meter and three-meter dives. According to Cady, she is grateful for her coaches, teammates and a strong sense of camaraderie on the team.
“We spend a lot of time outside of the pool as a team,” Cady said. “We do a lot of game nights or movie nights. We would just hang out a lot.”
According to Cady, Occidental’s swim and dive team has a Leadership Council, which is in essence team captains. Members of this council include Cady, Phung and Spessert.
“[The Council] is stressful and a lot of work, but it is really comforting and nice to know that people can come to me if they need anything,” Phung said. “I can be someone that is able to facilitate good relationships within a team.”
While being captains has been a different experience for each of them, they all said that they share the desire to care for their teammates.
“I’ve had a lot of practices where I wake up and I don’t want to go or I want an excuse, but I know that my leadership and my example that I set is important for the rest of the team,” Spessert said. “So, I’ll still show up and I’ll try my best in practice and on particularly crappy days, I try to keep up a good face for everyone, but it’s been really good.”
Phung said she competes in the 100-yard backstroke and 200-yard backstroke for Occidental and has swum in SCIAC relays during her freshman and sophomore years. According to Phung, although she has not improved her times too much, she is not concerned with that.
“The hard thing about it and it’s just like a general trend with girls, there’s a point where you don’t get faster, which is fine,” Phung said.
Phung said that being a part of the swim team at Occidental is something that really grounds her, and that she might take time off to heal her body before going into masters swimming.
“I can’t imagine anything better. I have had nothing bad with the coaches and I really admire them, the work they put in and as well as my teammates, I think we do a really good job of always trying to be better every year,” Phung said. “It’s just something so routine that is just really helpful for the stability of my life.”
Spessert, who swims the 500-yard freestyle, the mile, the 200-yard freestyle, and the 400-yard Individual Medley (IM), started swimming when he was five and competing when he was 10. While Spessert said he originally did not enjoy the sport, his passion has grown over time.
“I actually didn’t really like it. I hated how cold the pool was,” Spessert said. “I was really skinny, and my face would come out and my lips would be blue.”
While Spessert said he still at times has a disdain for waking up at 5:30 a.m. for practice, he really loves the exercise and the team.
Spessert said that some of his biggest successes are returning to swimming after a first year at Occidental during COVID-19, becoming team captain and building a community with the team.
According to Spessert, some of his best memories are of the willingness of the coaches to support their athletes in creative ways.
“[One time] our assistant coach agreed that if most of us shave our heads, we would also shave his head,” Spessert said. “Shaving my assistant coach’s head was also great.”
To began swimming at the age of 10 and now swims the 100-yard freestyle, 200-yard freestyle and the 200-yard IM. To said he has really loved the team aspect at Occidental and says that he plans to continue swimming just for exercise after college.
To’s successes include winning SCIAC Athlete of the Week, MVP for team his first year and the Academic Excellence award. To said he hopes to qualify for nationals and potentially break a school record during his last few weeks here.
The athletes said they are getting ready to move away from collegiate swimming, but there are still a lot of moments that they remember.
“Winter training every year is so fun,” Phung said. “It’s so much work, just imagine swimming twice a day almost every day. It’s kind of crazy and it sucks because all we’re doing is swimming, but also all we’re doing is swimming so we can get together and have fun and go do things we can’t do outside of like during school time.”
To said that one of his favorite memories from the team was at SCIAC Championships.
“It was the last relay, and we were swimming outside, so it was dark, and it was freezing, but it was just so much fun because everybody was so pumped up and the energy was so high and we all swam really fast,” To said.
According to To, being a part of such a great team makes it difficult to say goodbye.
“I’ll definitely miss coming to practice every day and working hard with the same group of guys and girls on the team,” To said. “I made some of my lifelong friends here.”
Contact Marley Smith at msmith5@oxy.edu
