 The Beat, 12th Man Productions' all-access look into Texas A&M Athletics, airs Wednesdays at 4 p.m. on FOX Sports Southwest and 6:30 p.m. locally in College Station on KBTX-TV. |
Senior Sarah Gibson has made a big splash in the pool.
But for the 100-meter butterfly SEC Champion, her journey to success hasn't always been easy.
"Freshman year was pretty rough," Gibson said. "I hadn't been training fully because of some past injuries, and so I got here and the training volume was higher. I'd never lifted before. I'd never done any training outside the pool at all. And so I think I was a little behind on that learning curve and struggled a lot."
In the true sense of the word team, all it took was a little encouragement from a senior to get her going.
Of course, if that senior has an Olympic gold medal around her neck, that doesn't hurt either.
"Breeja (Larson) took me under her wing, pulled me aside and said, 'I believe you can do this. I know you don't necessarily believe you can do this right now, but you just have to stick with it.'"
Looking back, Gibson sees the value of that advice.
"She was so right. I'm just so thankful she was there, and some of the other girls on the team as well…just being so welcoming and willing to put up with my struggles as I figured things out."
Now three years later, her maturity—both in and out of the pool—provides all the perspective she needs on that year.
"The only reason I'm where I'm at now is because I survived that."
Last year at the 2016 SEC Championships in Missouri, she clocked the country's fastest time in the 100 fly—an event in which she wasn't even supposed to race.
"We didn't go in with me signed up to swim the 100 fly," Gibson recalls. "I was going to swim the mile. But after the 200 medley relay, (head coach) Steve (Bultman) looked at me and said, 'Do you want to try it?' I was tentative. I wasn't sure if I should do it, and I don't really sprint."
Once again, a teammate stepped up with just that little nudge of encouragement.
"(Sycerika McMahon) pulled me aside and told me, 'No. You want to swim the 100 fly, and you're going to do great at it. Just get up there and do it.'"
In the preliminaries of the event she swam a time of 50.99-- the country's fastest mark so far that year.
Gibson's reaction when she found out?
"I did what?"
Lining up for finals that evening, she outpaced her teammate and last year's winner—Béryl Gastaldello—with a mark of 51.11. That earned her a medal, and her own title.
SEC Champion.
The result was no surprise to her teammates.
"She knew herself she could do really well in the 100 fly, but she kept telling herself she had to do the mile for the team," McMahon says. "So I encouraged her to talk to Steve a little bit because we all knew she could do well. She ended up swimming it and she won. It was a major, major achievement."
Two days later, Gibson and her teammates would clinch the program's first SEC title. A few weeks after that, she'd finish second in the 100 fly at the NCAA Championships en route to the Aggies' program record-tying fourth-place showing overall.
"Sarah has improved every year since freshman year, but last year was when I feel she really broke out," McMahon said. "It was incredible to watch and such a huge step in her career."
Just as Gibson has left her mark at Texas A&M, Texas A&M has left its mark on Gibson.
"You know, this program…I can't even begin to describe it. I look back at the person I was, and the person I am now, and they're so totally different. I know a lot of that growth has come from being in this program, surrounded by this team, this staff."
Gibson will take to the pool for the final two meets of her collegiate career over the next month—SECs and NCAAs. And for her, the ride just continues to get more and more exciting.
"It's just been a wonderful experience. I got to accomplish things I never thought I'd be able to do. I got to witness people accomplish things that were just amazing—watching girls make Olympic teams, watching people win NCAA titles.
"Just to be a part of this process, this team…this team has gotten better every year I've been here, and I know it will continue to grow after I'm gone. I'm sad to be leaving, but I'm excited to see what they're going to do in the future."