Ask any athlete what a key part of staying motivated is, and the response will include having goals that are achievable.
If anyone knows about having goals and staying motivated, it’s the seniors on the ASU women’s swimming team.
Asthon Aubry and Jamie Martinez, now in their final season at ASU, were both members of the 400-medley relay team that broke the school record last year with a time of 3:35.95.
But they’re not giving up and taking it easy just because they’re seniors with records to their names. Both swimmers have goals they still want to accomplish this year.
To stay motivated, Aubry said she always remembers why she’s at ASU and looks at her list of goals on a regular basis.
Aubry set a record last season in the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 1:56.14. This year, her goals are even higher.
“I want to get the 100 fly record and re-break the 200 fly record,”
Aubry said. “I also want our team to place really high at the Pac-10s.”
Aubry, a native of Kansas, got into swimming by joining a summer league and started swimming on a club team when she was 10. She stuck with it because she had a passion for it, and she knew she wanted to swim in college.
“I knew I could go somewhere with swimming,” Aubry said. “It’s motivating to keep going. College is what every high-school swimmer is basically swimming for.”
Martinez, who hails from San Jose, Calif., also began the sport at an early age by joining a summer team.
“I [then] joined the year-round team when I was 6, and I’ve been doing it ever since.”
Martinez said she also has plenty of goals she plans to accomplish this year after setting the ASU record for the 200-yard backstroke last season with a time 1:55.78.
“I want to get my 200 backstroke record even faster and make it to the NCAAs and possibly score there,” she said.
Martinez is one of the women’s team’s multitalented athletes. She has also placed in the ASU women’s swimming all-time top-10 times in the 100 backstroke (54.08), the 200 fly (2.00.13), the 400 individual medley (4:19.89) and the 100 fly with a time of (55.57).
Aubry and Martinez have learned a lot throughout their time swimming for ASU, and Aubry said it hasn’t always been easy.
“We all learned that it takes time,” Aubry said. “You learn from things you do wrong. So much goes into being a college athlete, for any athlete. You have to balance out everything, and it’s really hard, but you get better at it as time goes by.”
Aubry and Martinez are at the Mona Plummer Aquatic Center by 6 a.m. before heading to class. They then practice again in the afternoon, which is followed by study hall.
“I don’t usually get home until [8 p.m.] every night,” Aubry said.
Martinez and Aubry have had several different coaches in their time swimming for ASU, but they both agreed that ASU swim coach Dorsey Tierney-Walker demands hard work from the athletes.
“It’s a lot harder,” Martinez said. “Our practices are a lot more demanding all the time.”
In their free time, both swimmers like to go to other athletic games at ASU to support the other teams. Martinez and Aubry also enjoy shopping and going to the movies.
The pair spend most of their time with their fellow swimmers.
“It’s like a family, because you do everything together,” Aubry said. “Swimming, study hall, you hang out with them after practice and on the weekends. We’re always, always together.”
After graduation, Martinez, a family and human development major, plans to go to graduate school to become a marriage counselor.
“I’ve always been interested in relationships and conflicts,” Martinez said. “I think it’d be really cool and interesting.”
Aubry is still unsure of what she plans to do after graduation, but she knows she wants to go into a field related to her major, which is family studies and sociology.
Reach the reporter at nicole.klauss@asu.edu.
