The entire collegiate swimming season takes place in a pool, but one ASU swimmer took her talents to the open waters of Maui, Hawaii over the summer.
ASU freshman Tristin Baxter won the open-water 10K event at the Junior Pan Pacific Championships in late August. Baxter finished the 6.2-mile swim in just under two hours with a time of 1:58:42.77.
The event was Baxter’s second open-water competition as she had previously competed in the U.S. Open Water Nationals in Long Beach, Calif. Baxter enjoyed the swim in Maui a lot more than she enjoyed the one in Long Beach.
“It was really fun,” Baxter said. “It was kind of cool, you could see everything on the bottom while you were swimming, [the water] was really clear.”
To the average fan it may seem that swimming is swimming whether it takes place in an ocean or a pool, but open-water swimming is actually much more challenging.
“There’s a lot more strategy in open-water swimming,” Baxter said. “You have to learn to draft off other people and how to pace yourself [as well as] when to make your move and pull ahead of people.”
Baxter’s coach and teammate echoed her sentiment.
“I know it’s very difficult because I have done open-water before, but it’s very impressive to see her win,” ASU junior Penelope Yamauchi said. “It takes a lot of mental toughness to be out there by yourself, so you know she has a strong will and a strong mind.”
ASU coach Dorsey Tierney-Walker added that open-water swimming takes more focus.
“It can be a little bit rough; you get in some tangles with other swimmers and Tristin’s water polo background probably helped her with that,” Tierney-Walker said.
Despite her success throughout high school and summer, Baxter is still unsure about what to expect of herself when the college season gets underway. While Baxter may be unsure of what to expect, her teammate and coach are very confident in her abilities.
Yamauchi said Baxter is a hard worker who is just scratching the surface of her potential.
“I see her going top eight at [National Championships] this year no problem,” Yamauchi said.
Tierney-Walker has also been impressed with the freshman swimmer and said Baxter has a great ability to make adjustments quickly and has shown great drive and focus.
Baxter credits some of her success to her upbringing. Swimming is nothing new to the Baxter family as both of Tristin’s parents swam for UCLA. Her father was her high school coach at Clovis West High School in Fresno, Calif., and her mother swam at the 1972 Olympics.
Baxter, who has been swimming since she was eight years old, said growing up around the pool and having parents who know so much about swimming has helped her perform better.
Earning the title of High School Swimmer of the Year three times from The Fresno Bee, Baxter is no stranger to success and hard work, but she admitted that the transition to college is a big step up from what she is used to.
“Training is a lot harder,” Baxter said. “Dry land and weights are a lot harder [compared to high school]. I had never really done anything like that.”
After swimming competitively for ten years, it is clear Baxter enjoys swimming, and her coach has also noticed Baxter’s love of the sport.
“She’s great at just enjoying racing,” Tierney-Walker said. “She just enjoys racing and does a good job of not making more of it than it really is.”
Baxter played water polo in high school and, while swimming is her priority, Baxter loves water polo and said she is still considering playing for ASU’s team this season.
Reach the reporter at william.boor@asu.edu
