Sophomore Mattie Letendre of Baraboo, Wis. has been swimming since she was seven, and although she was always in love with the sport, she never quite imagined it would take her this far.
“We had just moved to a new town, and my parents wanted to put me and my brothers into an activity where we would meet other local kids,” Letendre explained. “I didn’t think I was going to swim in college.”
Letendre continued swimming, but it wasn’t until she toured Lawrence University that she actually thought about how the sport she grew up loving could be a part of her college experience. It was a feeling of “never really wanting to stop” that drove her to continue her passion onwards.
As a first-year, Letendre had a great season with many personal achievements, but her sophomore year was incredibly special because she had the opportunity and the goal mindset to be able to break some school records.
“Breaking a record was a goal ever since coming to Lawrence,” Letendre said. “It was something I talked with my coaches about this year, and just trying to focus training so that I could improve across all my events and develop a competitive chance at breaking multiple records.”
Letendre said it was the open communication across all coaches and herself that really helped her achieve her athletic goals. She elaborated by saying that between the hiring of a new assistant coach and conversing often with head coach Andrew Fleek, she was able to establish a good routine that could aid in meeting her future aspirations. She broke school records in the 100m fly, 100m back, and the 200m back. Letendre explained the difficulty with setting multiple records in different races: they are all competed differently and work different muscles, so it requires one to be very well-rounded.
“We hired a new assistant coach who did a really good job working with our head coach about just improving conditioning for the team overall,” Letendre said. “We had a lot of top eight finishes at conference, we had another record broken on the men’s side […] overall a very successful season that I think was reflected very well throughout the team.”
Letendre was elected MVP for the second year in a row by her peers. She was also deemed the Midwest Conference Performer of the Week twice this year. Like all sports, swimming takes hard work and dedication; however, as Letendre joked, “You’re just holding your breath through everything!”