The year before senior swimmer Lori Kremer came to ASU, her hometown of St. Albert, Alberta, Canada, had four days straight of record cold temperatures.
Kremer said her car got stuck in the snow every day and the cold was “miserable.”
At this time, Kremer was deciding what school she wanted to commit to and after those cold days, she decided she didn’t want to go to college in a place where there was snow.
“I got home from school one day and I was like, ‘Mom, I’m sorry I’m about to do this,’ and I crossed off every single school that had snow,” Kremer said.
She was looking for a school that she could be happy at every day because of the sun, the beauty and palm trees.
Kremer visited ASU and said she fell in love.
“I met the coaches and the team, and the atmosphere was amazing,” she said. “We have a really positive and fun atmosphere, along with training really hard.”
Kremer talked about ASU non-stop for a week after her visit and her mom told her, “This is it."
She signed with the Sun Devils the following week.
Kremer started swimming due to the influence of her three older sisters, who all swam butterfly.
When she was five, Kremer said her sisters threw her in their backyard pool and forced her to learn fly. She couldn’t even swim freestyle at the time, but she had butterfly down pat.
When she was eight, she knew swimming was something she wanted to continue doing past her grade school years.
“When you’re little and you just start winning, you feel good about yourself,” Kremer said. “I realized that I loved it, and I never wanted to leave the water.”
Seventeen years after she first learned butterfly, Kremer is still loving it with one more year left as a Sun Devil.
Kremer hopes to make it to NCAAs in the time she has left at ASU.
“I’m a senior, and I still haven’t made NC’s,” she said. “I got entered last year, but I got injured, so I didn’t get the opportunity. I just want to make it with a few girls on the team and have that experience.”
Despite missing out on NCAAs, Kremer has competed in the Pac-12 championships several times.
She said her sophomore year, the meet was structured differently and the guys came on the last day of the women’s finals because they were scheduled to start the following day.
Kremer made finals in the 200 fly, which she said was a very exciting moment for her.
“That night, I was going up to swim and all the girls' and guys' teams were screaming my name and cheering for me,” she said. “That’s just such a good feeling having 50 people completely support you, and I got a huge best time. You can’t explain that feeling, but there’s no where else you’d rather be than in that moment.”
Kremer swam in all three of the Sun Devils meets so far this season and said she feels confident about the rest of the season.
The Sun Devils will travel to California on Nov. 14 and 15 to face USC and UCLA.
Reach the reporter at Megan.Kavy@asu.edu or follow her on Twitter @meggiekavy
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