It was a relatively quiet summer in the swim world compared to the glitz and glamour of the 2008 Summer Olympics.
For LSU swimmer Jane Trepp, it was business as usual.
Trepp, a junior from Estonia, spent the summer racking up personal records and traveling the globe for swim meets. She was an eight-time Estonian national champion and record holder with numerous international meets under her belt prior to LSU.
During the last few years, Trepp has been to meets in Scotland, Spain, Russia, Ireland and Austria, to name a few. She added Rome and Serbia to her list this summer.
Rome and Serbia were the sites for the FINA World Championships and the World University Games, respectively.
Trepp said the World Championships, which had more than 2,500 athletes from 185 countries participate (including Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps), was the biggest meet in which she had ever participated.
“I’ve never been to Rome before,” Trepp said. “It was fun. We had some time off to visit Vatican City.”
Trepp prepared for the meet by getting her workouts from LSU assistant coach David Geyer and practicing them on her own.
“It wasn’t too different,” Geyer said of the summer workout. “It enabled me to make it really specific for her needs. It wasn’t for a group of 10-12 similar athletes. I was making up what I thought was in the best interest for Jane to swim the fastest.”
Trepp said the hardest thing was practicing alone.
“I’ve always trained with my coach,” Trepp said. “This summer was the first time I did it this way. It turned out well.”
Trepp placed 21st in the 50-meter breaststroke out of 113 participants, just barely missing the cut for semifinals. She placed 41st in the 50-meter butterfly and 43rd in the 100-meter breaststroke.
Geyer said Trepp is LSU’s first student-athlete to make it to the World Championships, one of the many accolades she has brought to the team during her two years in Baton Rouge.
In her first year at LSU, Trepp had three top-10, all-time marks for the school and was voted top newcomer at the end of the year.
Last year, she broke seven school records in three different strokes, received first-team All-American Honors and won the Most Outstanding Swimmer award for the Lady Tigers.
“She’s very versatile,” said LSU coach Adam Schmitt. “She’s someone that we can really rely on and put her in certain positions in order to win meets.”
This year, the coaches named Trepp co-captain for the women’s team.
“It’s the first year she’s been captain,” Schmitt said. “This year the captains were selected by the coaches, so that makes it a little bit more of an honor. We’re looking to her to be a leader of the program.”
A leader in and out of the pool, Trepp also works hard in the classroom and has made the Southeastern Conference honor roll two years in a row. In July, the College Swimming Coaches Association of America named her an Individual Scholar All-American.
Trepp said her goal for the season is to have a good performance at Southeastern Conference championships and qualify for the NCAA championships.
As for a long-term goal, she has her eye on the 2012 Olympics in London.
“I missed by like half a second or something,” Trepp said of qualifying for the 2008 Olympics. “I’m looking forward to going to London though.”—- Contact Katherine Terrell at [email protected]