Wheaton College Alumni Magazine Autumn 2013 | Page 12

WHEATON sports

Big Splash
“You never get a second chance to make a good first impression.” —Will Rogers, Jr.
by Brett Marhanka, Athletics Communications Director

Kirsten Nitz ’16 made a strong first
impression for the Thunder women’s
swim team, and it lasted an entire year.
In just her second week of collegiate
competition, she set school records in
the 100-yard freestyle and the 100yard butterfly, and was named the
Counsilman-Hunsaker Swimmer of the
Week by Collegeswimming.com.
Her season-long splash culminated in
March at the 2013 NCAA Division III
Swimming & Diving Championships,
where she won three individual national
championships, the most ever won in a
year by a Wheaton swimmer.
Kirsten set an NCAA record at the
conference championships in the 50-yard
freestyle, and later added national titles
in the 100-yard butterfly and the

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200-yard backstroke. She was also honored
as the CCIW Women’s MVP of the
conference meet and later this spring as
CCIW Women’s Swimmer of the Year.
“She’s an extremely versatile athlete and
a team player,” says Coach Jon Lederhouse
’74, aquatics director and head swimming
coach. “One of the things that was significant about her success, and a bit unusual,
was that she won her NCAA titles in three
different strokes over three different distances.”
A third-generation Wheaton student,
Kirsten made the difficult decision to forego
swim scholarships and once-in-a-lifetime
Division I swimming opportunities when she
followed her entire nuclear family’s footsteps
to Wheaton. She says, “Even though it was
a hard decision, I knew that getting a great
education and being at Wheaton would also

be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
Having given the matter a great deal
of thought, she explains that she expects
academics to drive her career path after
college. Mindful of what a formative
experience college can be, she adds, “I
wanted to be part of a community that
focuses on Christ and builds one another up
in that.” And in fact, the caring community
at Wheaton has been the favorite piece of
Kirsten’s first-year experience.
Though she swam competitively in
high school, Kirsten expected the jump
to collegiate-level swimming at Wheaton
to be difficult. She says, “Coming from
high school, it was a challenge. I was not
used to having two-a-day practices, or
early morning practices on top of more
demanding academics.”