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Kyle Means
Daily Egyptian

There he is, Marcelo Possato, the first SIU swimmer to qualify for the NCAA Championships since 1991 and the first athlete in either swimming or diving to make it since 1995.

The swimmer of the year at last month's Missouri Valley Conference Invitational will hold the Saluki flag at what he and his coach calls "the fastest meet in the world" when he competes today in the 100- and 200-meter backstroke at the University of Minnesota.

There is something clearly special about what this senior from Brazil has done lately, but it would be indistinguishable during an average off-season practice for the swimming and diving team.

"Marcelo has done everything that we've ever asked of him in the pool," Walker said. "And he's got a super mentality because once he gets it into his head that this is what he wants to do, nothing else gets in his way."

Instead of being far off to the side, treated with children's gloves while his teammates grind through the session, Possato is among them in the lanes. He's unrecognizable in almost every way until you see that he is going at a somewhat slower pace. While his teammates won't compete again for several months, Possato has to conserve energy to shine once again this weekend - one last chance to cement his place as one of SIU's greatest swimmers.

"I don't want to go over there and just swim prelims; I want to make a mark," Possato said. This weekend in the proving ground of Minnesota's University Aquatic Center, Possato will be motivated and mindful of all those in Carbondale who will root for him.

"This is really good for me and the University," Possato said. "We can add a lot of recruits. I'm really glad that I'm going to represent the University. I'm going to focus 100 percent on getting into the finals and putting the SIU name into the finals."

But among the best swimmers in the world, a field of schools with disciplined homegrown Americans as well as talented foreigners like Possato, it will take a lot to see records fall and races won with the ease that it took at the MVCs.

"There are a lot of world record holders," Possato said. "Just for me to be over there is a real pleasure. This is a dream come true."

Coming into the NCAAs, Possato ranks in the top 30 in both backstroke events (29th in the 100 and 22nd in the 200), so he looks at cracking the top 16 as a possible triumph.

"To get top 16, for me if I can do it, is pretty much putting me at 16th in the world," Possato said.

For Possato this meet will be the first step in making himself into a world-class swimmer.

His eye is on the Olympics, and while that may seem far off right now, so did a spot in the NCAAs when he was a freshman.

"When I was a freshman, my goals were just to break school records," Possato said. "[Coach Walker] and I, every year we set a goal, and this year's goal was to get to the NCAAs. If you want to be the best, you got to swim with the best."

The triangle of head coach Rick Walker, Possato and the SIU team works well because everyone involved is benefiting from it. Walker, a U.S. national coach, gets to add another impressive feather to his coaching cap. Possato gets doors opened to him that few Salukis have, and the underclassmen get to see what it takes to make it to a higher level.

"We can now utilize what Marcelo has done," Walker said. "The benefit of that will not be so much this year, but we've got a very good freshman class who have seen an NCAA qualifier go to the meet whereas Marcelo had to do it on his own. Those who are going to be sophomores next year are very close to making that, and now that they've seen a live human being with a beating heart actually do it, then that becomes more real for those people. This breaks a huge barrier for us."

In Walker's opinion, there are many in the program that have what it takes. The breakthrough of Possato could lead to more future SIU highlights, and the coach can say that in confidence because of one determined guy and the straightforward coaching it took to mold him.

"The greatest journey in his time here has been the transformation from a swimmer who wanted to make the NCAA to a swimmer who actually made it," Walker said. "And there are other swimmers in this pool, here and now, that can do the same thing if they only set about the path the way he's done it."