Name: Taylor McClung

Age: 21

Hometown: Sleepy Hollow, N.Y.

Major: Psychology

How long have you been competitively swimming?

I have been competitively swimming for 14 years.

How did you get into the sport?

My dad has been working as a swim coach since before I was born, so swimming was present in my house from a really young age. I joined the team at our summer pool when I was seven. It was only a four week season but I had such a good time that my parents thought it was the right time to join the club team my dad coached for. That was when it became an all year long thing for me.

What made you want to join the team at SLU?

Bob Clemmer, our couch, had actually been recruiting me since my junior year of high school. I knew I wanted to swim in college, but at that point, I had no idea what I was looking for in a school. Bob finally convinced me to do a recruiting trip in October of my senior year of high school. As nervous as I was to be on my first recruiting trip, everyone was really nice and welcoming. I really liked how close they all seemed and I had a great time. It helped that dana had never ending chocolate milk.

What has been your favorite experience on the team so far?

On my club team in high school, I was the only distance swimmer that we had so I never had a training group and I never got to truly train for my events. My favorite thing about coming to SLU was getting to train for the 1000 and the mile. What made it even better was the people I got to swim with. I’ve had some pretty great training groups in my time at SLU. We always swam more than we thought we could handle but loved it. Shout out to The Golden Era & The Tremendous Trio. Love you guys.

What makes SLU’s swimming team so unique?

Our team is really close. My best friends are or have been part of the team. We all work hard but we like to enjoy ourselves. No one takes it too seriously, and I think that’s what makes it so easy to be part of the team.

What is your competition/practice schedule like?

We have afternoon practices Monday-Friday. We have mandatory Monday, Wednesday and Saturday morning practices. We also have optional Friday morning practices. When our dual-meets start, those typically happen on Saturdays. We’ve had a random Friday or Sunday meet each season.

Do you have any pre-competition rituals?

Sort of. I get really nervous before I swim, so I like to keep myself busy by talking to my teammates or by talking to my coach about my strategy for the race. My sister also swims for SLU and whenever she is counting for my longer distance events we always do a Texas Longhorns hand gesture to each other. It started when we were younger as a joke and it’s become a consistent thing.

What do you do to celebrate a win?

Any personal wins that I had would happen at the beginning of the meet, so that would just get me pumped for the rest of the meet. I’d try my best to get everyone’s energy up. After a team win, I’d go for a team dana train or pub run.

Who would you say is your biggest fan?

I’d have to say my dad. He’s always been on the pool deck, as a coach and as a parent, with praise, with some criticism and with pride. He’s always seen my potential, even when I couldn’t, and he never let me give up on myself. I definitely wouldn’t have decided to swim in college or made it through my college swimming career without him.