There may not be a team in the Big 10 that has delivered more jaw-dropping time drops and consistently fast swims across the board during championship season in recent years than the Pennsylvania State University Nittany Lions. Both the men’s and women’s teams have been especially good when it comes to February and March swims, and the women’s team will look to senior distance specialist Megan Siverling to help them continue this trend in 2015.
Siverling hails from Chester Springs, Pennsylvania, a small township just a few hours away from State College, and it became clear very early on that she was ready to make an impact for the Nittany Lions. During her freshman season with the White and Royal Blue, Siverling swam best times across the board at the Big Ten Championships, leading the team in the 500 free (4:49.72, 24th at Big Tens with a 4:51.42 in finals) and posting the second fastest time on the team in the 1650 with a 16:37.28 (21st). Her other best time came in the 200 free, where she took 42nd with a 1:51.73.
Building off the momentum she had from her freshman year, Siverling would only continue to astound with her performances her sophomore year. She would shatter personal bests in all of her primary events once again, swimming to a 1:49.69 in the 200 free (28th), a 4:42.12 in the 500 free (6th), and a 16:24.68 in the 1650 (7th). Notably, her 500 free was just a hundredth of a second slower than her teammate, Alyson Ackman, who established a new school record via her win in the B-final.
Siverling’s times at the Big Ten Championships would help her qualify for the 2013 NCAA Championships, where she delivered another set of impressive performances. Her highlight of the championships came in the form of a new school record in the 1650 (16:09.40), a time that also netted her All-American Honorable Mention honors due to her 16th place finish. She also finished just out of the scoring heats in the 500 free with a 4:42.34 for 19th overall.
After a torrid first half of her collegiate career, Siverling kept her incredible run going in the 2013-14 season. At that year’s conference championships, she swam to a new career best in the 200 free (1:48.86, 19th) while also turning in finishes of 5th in the 1650 (16:15.88) and 10th in the 500 free (4:45.21). Notably, her 1000 split of the 1650 was a 9:45.41, a new Penn State school record that still stands.
Siverling’s performance in the 1650 would allow her to compete at the 2014 NCAA Championships, and she came through huge once again in her signature race. Megan swam to a 16:08.90, chopping a half-second off her own school record and taking 15th overall for All-American Honorable Mention honors once again. It is worthwhile to mention that she was actually out three seconds slower than her conference swim at the 1000 mark, but she put together a strong sequence of final 100s to set a new personal best. Additionally, she also competed in the 500 free, taking 33rd with a 4:44.32.
Outside of the pool, Siverling was a First Team CSCAA Scholar All-American in 2014 and she has also accumulated Big Ten Distinguished Scholar awards in 2013 and 2014.
With just two days remaining until competition commences at the 2015 Big Ten Championships, it is really exciting to speculate how fast Megan Siverling will go during her final championship season with the Nittany Lions. Her incredible streak of personal bests would have any coach grinning, and she has already been exceptionally fast mid-season with a new school record in the 500 free (4:41.86) and a new personal best in the 200 free (1:47.70) at the Georgia Fall Invitational. As a bonus, she has two years of NCAA experience already under her belt, so we can be confident in knowing that she will be well prepared for all of her individuals when the whistle blows.
Best Times (SCY/LCM)):
200 Free: 1:47.70/2:05.71
500 Free/400 Free: 4:41.86*/4:22.81
1000 Free/800 Free: 9:45.41*/8:49.93
1650 Free/1500: 16:08.90*/17:01.72
*Denotes school record
School Major/Degree: Nutritional Sciences – Dietetics
Favorite Event: 500 Freestyle
Favorite Hobby/Hidden Talent: Playing the piano
Favorite Movie: Forrest Gump
Role Model Growing Up/ Person You’d Like to Meet: I’ve been a Harry Potter fanatic since I first learned to read and I would still love to meet JK Rowling in person.
Favorite Food/ Pre-Race Meal: My favorite food is seafood, but before a race, I like to eat oatmeal with a banana.
At what age did you become involved with swimming? How did you get into it?
I’m incredibly lucky because I got to experience playing almost every sport as a child. When I was seven, I joined our summer swim team, mostly because I spent every waking minute at the pool already in the summertime and most of my friends were doing it too. Summer swimming was an absolute blast, but every year my twin sister and I ended up on the JV team. We decided to start swimming for a club team, Malvern Swimming Association, when we were eleven with the hopes that we one day we’d be fast enough to make the varsity summer team. My Malvern teammates are still like family to me, and they’re a huge part of the reason I kept swimming through middle and high school.
What is your favorite collegiate swimming memory and why?
Swimming the mile at NCAAs my sophomore year. The mile takes more than 16 minutes, so usually people get pretty bored when they’re watching it. But during this race, my teammates and coaches were all on their feet, jumping up and down and going crazy the entire time. Every time I took a breath I could see them cheering me on, and the boost that came from their support was amazing.
Last year, you set several personal bests for yourself, including bests in the 200 free, 1000 free, and 1650 free, with your performance in the 1650 establishing a new school record in the process. Do you think your NCAA experience from your sophomore year helped contribute to a repeat to your end of the year success?
I think having the chance to swim at NCAAs my sophomore year definitely taught me what to expect and how to prepare for NCAAs the following year. When I went to NCAAs my sophomore year, I kind of viewed it as the icing on the cake after Big Tens—I was happy just to make it there and wasn’t as concerned with swimming faster there than at the conference meet. Last year I was fortunate enough to come into the season with the experience of resting for two meets a month apart from each other, and I came in with the expectation to race well and try to get points at Big Tens as well as NCAAs.
At the Georgia Fall Invitational, you established another school record with your performance in the 500 free, chopping 0.25 seconds off the previous record held by teammate Alyson Ackman. How do you feel this sets you up for your final season, and what is it like having a teammate like Alyson to keep you on your toes when it comes to your training?
Aly is so much fun to train with. Swimming with her is like having the Energizer bunny in your lane. I’ve never met anyone who genuinely loves the sport of swimming more than Aly does, and her passion is absolutely contagious. The only thing that can get her more excited than one of her own races is a teammate’s race. For the past year, she’s been telling me how much she wants me to break her 500 record.
I think she was even happier than I was when it happened at Georgia. I don’t think it’s very common to find someone like Aly who is ultra-competitive and still such a team player, but our team has a lot of people with that mindset. It creates a great atmosphere for training and I think having strong support from each other has helped all of us to feel united and confident heading into Big Tens.
What/who do you think has been the single most important catalyst to your swimming career?
I wouldn’t say there was any particular catalyst that inspired me to start swimming, but I would say the single person who has been my motivator every step of the way is my twin sister, Danielle. Doing everything side by side for 18 years, including swimming, made both of us ridiculously competitive people.
But even though Danielle was always my biggest competitor, she was also my strongest supporter. In high school we trained together every day and we often swam the same races, but Danielle has never gotten satisfaction out of beating me to the wall. She was happy when she did her best and even happier when I did my best, regardless of which one of us finished first. Competing against each other was tough, but it definitely taught us from a young age that giving your best effort—and celebrating with other people when they do the same—is more important than winning.
Danielle swims for the University of North Carolina now and it’s been awesome to see her take off there over the past 4 years. Even though we swim for two different teams in two different conferences, we still turn to each other first for everything and are still each other’s number one fans.
Do you have any plans/commitments following the completion of your collegiate career?
I actually have a “bucket list” of all the things I want to do as a retired athlete! After NCAAs, I’m heading to Chapel Hill for the first time in almost four years to spend a long weekend with my sister Danielle. I’m also going on my first international mission trip to Haiti for a week in May, and I’m running a half-marathon for the first time over Memorial Day! I’m traveling to France and Italy with my parents and sisters in June.
There are a lot of little things I’m excited to do that I haven’t in a while, like give blood, go skiing, and have the time to take weekend trips to visit people and places I love. Career-wise, I want to become a registered dietitian. This fall, if it’s in God’s plan, I will be starting a dietetic internship, which is a year-long program that will certify me to become a clinical dietitian.
What should we look forward to from Penn State as a whole at this year’s Big Ten Championships?
Across the board, I think we’re in a position to perform even better than we did last year. Our coaching staff and our team have meshed really well this year, and there are a lot of individuals who have already been performing at a much higher level than they were last year at this point in the season. I’m excited to get to Columbus and see our year of hard work fall into place!