Maureen Johnson
Daily Egyptian
Imagine competing for your fourth national swimming title and having to battle cold water, fatigue and jellyfish in addition to other world-class swimmers.
That experience hits close to home for Briley Bergen, an incoming freshman who captured her fourth consecutive title at the 2002 25K Open Water Swim National Championships. The Championships took place July 8 off the shores of Newport Beach, Calif. Despite her previous three titles, the Jacksonville, Fla., native was never complacent she would win a fourth.
"It means a lot to me that I've been able to win it four times," Bergen said, "because after you've done it once, you think, 'Do I really want to go through all that work again?'"
Jeff Goelz, assistant coach of the U.S. Open Water Swim Team and head coach of the SIU women's swim team, was very pleased with Bergen's performance.
"Briley's victory means quite a bit," Goelz said. "It's really impressive. Very few people can say they're the four-time national champion in anything."
Goelz said the U.S. open water swim meets have taught Bergen to become physically and mentally tough. He is confident in her ability to adjust to life as an SIU student and swimmer.
"[Bergen swims] six and a half hours in the ocean, drinking Gatorade out of a bottle and trying to dodge sharks and jellyfish," Goelz said. "If you have that kind of person on your team, swimming in the Missouri Valley Conference is going to seem like a walk in the park."
Rick Walker, head coach for the U.S. Open Water Swim Team and the SIU men's swim team, said Bergen is one of the most consistent members on the U.S. Open Water Team.
"That's a young swimmer who you can count on being up there," Walker said. "And if she's in a race in the U.S., you can almost guarantee she's going to finish in the top three. If she's at the world championships, it's guaranteed she's going to finish in the top 10. That puts her up in an extremely elite group of athletes."
Bergen qualified for the 2002 World Championships scheduled in Egypt for August. However, Walker said it was decided that this year's world championships would be canceled, because it was not the best time and place to travel.
"Briley has still qualified for the national team, and she will be getting her selection of a domestic trip and an international trip, which will probably be a World Cup," Walker said. "Sometimes a World Cup will have athletes at least at the caliber of any world championships. She would have her selection of France, Africa, Brazil or any World Cup events."
Walker said Bergen would bring a great deal of strength to the distance freestyle events. Bergen said she is very excited to be swimming under the leadership of Goelz.
"Jeff is an awesome coach, and Rick is an awesome coach, too, although he's the men's coach," Bergen said. "I think I'm going to have a great year. All the girls are very nice, and it's a really well put-together swim team. I'm really excited to come."
Goelz said Bergen is also strong academically. Bergen will be balancing tough workouts and meets with a double major in international marketing and international trade. But Goelz is confident that Bergen will succeed both as a swimmer and as a student.
"She's good with time management, she's good with people and she's obviously a great trainer," Goelz said. "She's always been a real team player. She's going to be a great addition. She'll train really hard and do whatever she's asked. That's a really great athlete to have."
Reporter Maureen Johnson can be reached at mjohnson@dailyegyptian.com.
Published on 11/17/05; 12:24:44 PM
