Senior swimmer Kara Kopcso will compete in the pool one last time for LSU in the NCAA championships.
During Kopcso’s time at LSU, she has broken seven school records and has been a part of four record breaking relay teams.
But Kopcso isn’t ready for her career to end.
“It’s like swimming is breaking up with me,” she said.
Kopcso made All-SEC freshman honors her first year at LSU and was a 2015 NCAA All-American honorable mention.
“She definitely leads in the water,” coach Dave Geyer said. “She’s someone in our dual meet lineups that you can always count on for a great leg and a great split.”
But for Kopcso, it isn’t about her individual achievements.
“I wouldn’t say I try to [break records] at all,” Kopcso said. “It’s about just going faster than you did before. I’m not big on individual and personal stuff, I’m more proud of how the senior class has stayed together and how we started strong and finished strong.”
Kopcso will head to Indianapolis, Indiana for the NCAA championships starting March 16 with two other seniors on the swim team, Colleen O’Neil and Leah Troskot.
Kopcso, O’Neil and Troskot were roommates freshman year and have been together every step of the way.
“It’s exciting to end with three girls that started together,” Kopcso said. “It kind of stinks because we’re not going to have the rest of our team behind us, but at the same time, it’s still special to be able to compete more for ourselves and our school and our coaches.”
It will be an emotional plane ride home for the three seniors, but Kopcso said they’ll be glad to say they were able to compete with each other one last time.
Kopcso, a native of Mandeville, Louisiana, is proud of the fact she has influenced other swimmers in the area to be a part of LSU.
“Being able to see more people stay in state is really exciting,” Kopcso said.
LSU felt like home to Kopcso long before she was ever a student-athlete.
Coming from a local town, Kopcso was able to build a relationship with Geyer before coming to LSU.
“I’ve known Kara for about 11 years now, being from Louisiana and watching her come up as an age group swimmer,” Geyer said. “She’s a great kid, and it’s been fun to be around her and watch her grow into the young woman that she is after her four years here.”
When Kopcso came to LSU, her sister was a senior on the swim team at the time.
Having her sister on the team made her decision to swim at LSU an easy one.
“LSU is just really homey,” Kopcso said. “My aunt works here, my cousins all graduated from here. This is definitely my family’s place.”
In the last two years, Kopcso has taken on a new role that she feels her older sister left to her.
“Helping the underclassmen really find who they are as a swimmer is really important to me,” Kopcso said.
Kopcso is no stranger to the NCAA championships. She has competed in them every year she has been at LSU and learned a few things along the way.
“I’ve done this three other times and we know what works and we know what doesn’t really work so we’re trying to just do what we’ve done in the past,” Kopcso said.
Geyer has been working a lot with Kopcso one on one since conference championships and Geyer is confident not only in the way that Kopcso is performing, but O’Neil and Troskot too.
“Everything I’ve seen until this point compared to years past, I think we’re better all around,” Geyer said.
The atmosphere at NCAA’s is unlike the other competitions and the outcome is very different each year, and the team has had good and not so good.
“NCAA’s are always are always up and down for us,” Geyer said. “It’s hard to come off of a conference championship where you have the full team there with lots of emotion and then you take a smaller crew to NCAA. It’s hard to find that excitement.”
However, Kopcso is focused on what she can accomplish one last time.
“Put your heart in it,” Kopcso said. “It’s crazy to think that my four years is almost over and it’s definitely been a roller coaster. There’s been ups and downs, but I love every single person here. I love every second of being on this campus.