When former Florida Gator Ryan Lochte cruised to victory in the 400 IM on Saturday, American fans eagerly crowned him the next dominant force in swimming. Phelps, who finished 0.34 seconds shy of third place, was an afterthought. Those who did remember the Baltimore native, however, did not mince their words.

Throngs of fans ridiculed Phelps on Twitter and Facebook. They labeled the 14-time gold medalist as “lazy” and “washed out.” Phelps’ time to shine was effectively done.

Then, Lochte’s reign in London came crashing back down to Earth.

French swimmer Yannick Agnel erased a half-second deficit against Lochte on the anchor leg of the men’s 4x100m relay to clinch the gold and saddle the U.S. with silver.

One day later, Agnel won the 200m freestyle while Lochte placed fourth. It was the first time Lochte had failed to medal in nine Olympic events.

Suddenly, the toast of Olympic pools is French. And with guys like Lochte, Phelps, Brazil’s Thiago Pereira and Japan’s Takeshi Matsuda competing for aquatic superiority in London, Agnel’s stint in the spotlight may be as short-lived as Lochte’s rule.

In a nutshell, dominating a sport — actually, any competition — is difficult. Phelps’ historic run in Beijing was an anomaly.

Record books serve as a reminder that even though millions engage in athletics, only a select few rise above and beyond into legend. Phelps is one of those select few.

You may not like him, and that is fine. Not everybody can get on board with smoking dope and Subway, but show the man some respect.

He has more gold medals than you have close friends.

If you think he is a jerk, just ignore him when he’s on dry land. Perhaps Phelps did not train as hard this time around. You may call him lazy, but a poor work ethic did not get him where he is today. Unless you are gambling on swimming (why?), what does it matter to you?

Athletes have haters, and I recognize that. Not everyone will give Phelps the respect he deserves, but for those of you who will not, I ask you to reconsider.

When the events in London wrap up in nearly two weeks, Phelps will be the most decorated Olympian ever. He has already inspired the next generation of upcoming American swimmers.

If you are going to hate an Olympian, try U.S. ski racer Bode Miller. Talk about a world-class clown.

Phelps may be a burnt-out shell of his former self, but he deserves your respect. He may just be in it for the money this time around, but he has earned that right.

Lochte is a talented swimmer, and non-treasonous Americans everywhere will throw their support behind the 28-year-old. But refrain from hating on the former Gator’s esteemed teammate.

Phelps is U.S. swimming, and he will be until another American swimmer wins nine gold medals in a single Olympics.

Lochte put it best on his Twitter page Saturday: “Thanks @MichaelPhelps I couldn’t do it without you. #USA”

It’s easy to get lost in the chaos of a swim meet. Swimmers and divers in a cluster of heats compete one after another, and it can at times be hard to distinguish who’s who.

When Michael Phelps swims, all that changes — everyone stops what they’re doing and watches.

Around 700 swimmers, including Phelps and various other Olympians and world record-holders, competed this weekend in the Minneapolis Grand Prix at the U. Minnesota Aquatic Center.

The 16-time Olympic medalist was the star of the weekend, as he competed in his first meet this season while preparing for the 2012 London Olympic Games.

Phelps, 26, withdrew from last year’s Minneapolis Grand Prix the day before the competition began.

He won the 100-meter butterfly and the 200-meter freestyle Friday. He followed up with two wins Saturday in the 200-meter butterfly and the 100-backstroke, in which he barely edged out former Gophers swimmer David Plummer.

Phelps also dominated the 200-meter individual medley race Sunday.

“For the first meet back of the season, it shows that things are heading in the right direction, which is something I’m very proud of and happy with to be able to see,” Phelps said.

Phelps, who won the men’s high-point award for the meet, said he has set a few lofty goals he hopes to accomplish by the Olympics.

“The only person I control is myself, and I know if I can set myself up to what I want to do at the end of the summer, that’s all that matters. I have definitely some very, very high goals for myself for the end of the summer,” Phelps said.

Ryan Lochte, a six-timeOlympic medalist, also raced at the Grand Prix. Lochte, 27, finished third in the 200-meter freestyle consolation final and eighth in the 100-meter butterfly final Friday.

Lochte finished fourth in the 100-meter backstroke Saturday. He also qualified for the 200-meter individual medley, but did not race in the finals.

Lochte said he was using this meet to gauge where he stood physically, but didn’t have high expectations given his current stage of training. He said he’s trained exceptionally hard for the past year and a half. The non-stop training with few breaks may have hindered his weekend performance.

“I know I’m a little behind right now. I’m a little bit more tired, I think, than anybody else,” Lochte said.

Despite the lower-than-expected finishes from the Olympian, he said that he was in the best physical shape of his life and that this year is the most he has trained for the Olympics.

Friday’s 200-meter freestyle was highly anticipated because of the deep field and the potential Phelps-Lochte matchup in the finals.

Lochte missed the finals in that event, but he and Phelps swam against each other in Friday’s 100-meter butterfly and Saturday’s 100-meter backstroke. Phelps came out on top in both events.

Phelps and Lochte expressed mutual respect and said that they enjoyed racing each other.

“I love racing against him. It’s so much fun. He’s just a great competitor and a great racer,” Lochte said.

Though the two are friends, and won a gold medal racing together on the 4×200-meter freestyle relay team at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, a rivalry has emerged.

“I mean it’s definitely good for the sport, the rivalry that me and him created in the sport of swimming, so I definitely think that it’s just going to get bigger leading up to the Olympics,” Lochte said.

Four-time Olympic medalist breaststroke swimmer Brendan Hansen, 30, who took a two-year break from swimming after the 2008 Olympics, also competed in the Grand Prix.  He won the 100-meter breaststroke Friday and placed second in the 200-meter breaststroke Saturday.

Hansen said he wasn’t sure how many races he had to win for people to consider him “back” after winning the 100-meter breaststroke and 200-meter breaststroke at Nationals, but he did say that he saw room for improvement.

“I feel like there are definitely some technical and mechanical things I need to work on to really feel like I’m back on my game and back where I want to be,” Hansen said.

Missy Franklin, 16, won last year’s Grand Prix series and earned the women’s high-point award this weekend. She won five total medals: three gold, one silver and one bronze.

Twelve-time Olympic medalist Dara Torres, 44, who, at age 41 was the oldest swimmer ever to represent the U.S. in the Olympics, competed in the 50-meter freestyle. Torres tied for third.

The Minneapolis Grand Prix was the first of seven Grand Prix events this season hosted by USA Swimming. The Grand Prix series will wrap up June 3 in Santa Clara, Calif.

Swimmers get points based on their finish times, and the swimmer with the most points at the end of the series will be awarded a $20,000 prize.

This weekend featured several prominent swimmers including Olympic stars Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte and Eric Shanteau along with Texas alumni Ricky Berens and Dave Walters. The Grand Prix marked an important milestone in the training schedule for all Olympic hopefuls. With the 2012 Olympic Games in London only a year and a half away, these athletes have already begun their preparation training.

Many different races took place featuring outstanding performances across the pool. Olympian Kathryn Hoff was also seen throughout the weekend along with several up-and-coming teenagers hoping for their time in the spotlight. Despite the immense amount of talent on the pool deck, it was evident who the crowd was there to see.

The cheers from fans packed into the grandstands drowned out the announcers as Michael Phelps stepped onto the starting block for the 200-meter individual medley. Approximately 10 years ago, a younger Phelps broke his first world record at the same place. He has since broken his own record; however, his time of 1:57.39 still stands as the pool record at the
swim center.

This race was highly anticipated all weekend because of the impressive line-up that was in attendance. Phelps was joined on the starting block by both Lochte and Shanteau, all Olympians attempting to make it
to London.

Phelps’ famous arm stretch and flapping preparation drew eyes momentarily away from the shocking hot pink Speedo that Lochte chose to race in. As the buzzer sounded, the crowd followed the progress of these two standouts as they charged through the water — both trying to prove something. Lochte was attempting to show that he has what it takes to stay on top of the swimming nation while Phelps was trying to show he has what it takes to rise again.

The event proved to be an exciting one as Lochte took the lead early on closely followed by Phelps through its entirety. In the end Lochte finished first, edging out Shanteau, who overtook Phelps during the breaststroke portion of the medley.
Lochte was positive about his progress throughout the weekend, especially after his performance in the 200-meter IM.

“[The meet] is good preparation for what’s coming later on,” Lochte said. “[It’s] a great stepping stone.”

While the weekend produced no surprise records or controversial finishes, the chance to see some of the best swimmers in the sport’s history so close to home was an incredible experience. The times turned in across the board, while a bit slower than eventually desired, were unbelievable.

Competing as Team Bruin, 11 UCLA swimmers competed at the 2010 ConocoPhillips National Swimming Championships held from Tuesday to Saturday at the William Woollett Jr. Aquatics Center in Irvine. Team Bruin put together a ninth-place finish overall, but it was the individual performances that impressed the most.

Seniors Lauren Hall and Brittany Beauchan led the way, much like the pair did during the NCAA year.

Both competed in two C finals – which are contested between the 17th-24th-place finishers in preliminaries – in their specialty events. Hall was 22nd in the 200 individual medley (2:17.35) and 18th in the 400 IM (4:45.14), while Beauchan was 21st in the 100 breaststroke (1:10.26) and 17th in the 200 breast (2:29.47).

Junior Bianca Casciari was the only UCLA swimmer who appeared in a B Final, doing so in the 200 butterfly. Casciari finished 12th overall in a time of 2:12.58.

Three relay teams also managed to garner medals, which are handed out to the top eight teams in relay events. The 4×200 freestyle relay led the way with a second-place finish (8:12.51), while the 4×100 medley team took seventh (4:12.73) and the 4×100 free team took eighth (3:52.33).

Senior Sam Vanden Berge, who swam the second leg for the 4×200 free team, also had two solid individual performances in distance events. She finished ninth in the 800 free (8:42.04) and 18th in the 400 free (4:14.45) after competing in the C final of that event.

Despite it being offseason for NCAA teams, Team Bruin still saw itself looking up to some familiar faces on the scoreboard. The club teams affiliated with Cal, Stanford and USC all finished ahead of UCLA in the overall team rankings. Cal even had a national champion in sophomore Caitlin Leverenz, who took the crown in the 400 IM.

The meet was contested in a long-course meters pool – typical for most top-level events, including the Olympics – as opposed to the short-course yards format used during the NCAA season. A long-course pool is 50 meters long, while a short-course pool spans just 25 yards.

Phelps once again made headlines, but it was Lochte who stole the show by defeating the man who won eight gold medals in Beijing two years ago.

Lochte beat Phelps in the finals of a major meet for the first time ever in the 200 IM Friday. He won by more than a second over the second-place Phelps. On Saturday, Lochte did it again, winning the 200 backstroke, with Phelps finishing fourth. Both swimmers concluded the Championships with three events wins each.

On the women’s side, Amanda Beard, who once trained with Team Bruin under UCLA coach Cyndi Gallagher, surprised everybody with her second-place finish in the 200 breast.

Beard once amazed the country by picking up three medals as a 14-year-old at the 1996 Olympics, but had a dismal showing at the 2008 Olympics. She retired after the 2008 Games and gave birth to her first child in September 2009. Competing for the first time in a major meet since her retirement, Beard, now 28, touched the wall behind only Rebecca Soni. The second-place finish earned her a spot on the U.S. Pan Pacific Championships team.

The Mustangs have competed in the Big West Conference since the 1996-97 season, but the Big West has discontinued the sport following the departure of Cal State Northridge, reducing the number of schools competing in men’s swimming to four.

Along with Cal Poly, UC Santa Barbara also will join the Pac-10 in men’s swimming. The Pac-10 Council, following the recommendation of the Senior Women Administrators Committee (SWAC), approved the addition of the Mustangs and Gauchos for one year by e-mail vote last week and the Pac-10 made the official announcement Monday.

The Pac-10 Men’s Swimming Championship will be held March 2-5, 2011, at the Belmont Plaza Olympic Pool in Long Beach, Calif. Diving will be held as part of the Pac-10 Women’s Swimming Championships on Feb. 23-26, 2011, at the Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatics Complex in Federal Way, Wash.

Cal Poly’s third-place team finish in the Big West Conference Championships last February at Belmont Plaza was its highest ever in Division-I. The Mustangs were paced by Peter Kline, who won two events and qualified for the NCAA Division-I National Championships in three events. Matt Waggoner also won two Big West titles.

UC Santa Barbara finished second in the Big West Championships. The Gauchos have captured 26 Big West titles in men’s swimming over the last 34 years.

Last month, the Cal Poly women’s swimming and diving team was accepted as a member of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation.

Cal Poly also is an affiliate member of the Pac-10 Conference in wrestling.

For someone accustomed to swimming 1,650 meter competitions in indoor pools, converting those skills into a 25,000 meter race out in the open water is no easy task.

But former Harvard co-captain Alex Meyer proved that he had made a successful transition when he took home the gold medal for the United States in the 6th FINA World Open Water Swimming Championships in Roberval, Canada on Thursday afternoon.

Competing against swimmers from over 10 different countries, Meyers staged a come-from-behind victory in the final 2.5k of the five and a half hour race. Meyer trailed behind Italy’s Valerio Cleri by two seconds when they were 22.5k into the race, but Meyers made up the lost ground in the final stretch and edged past the Italian by just one second with a finishing time of 5:32:39.380.

By defeating Cleri, the reigning champion of the 25k competition at the 2009 World Aquatic Championships in Rome, Meyer gave the United States its second gold medal in the bi-annual international competition hosted by FINA, the international governing body of aquatic sports.

“Winning this race really means more to me than graduating from Harvard in May,” Meyer said in an interview with Swimming World Magazine. “I am an open water swimmer. I identify with this sport, and also with the athletes competing here.”

“Cleri is one of the world’s best open water swimmers, and I certainly thought he would be the fastest in the field,” Meyer added. “I feel I am a better sprinter. I think I snuck up on Cleri, and I don’t think he knew I was close behind him.”

Meyer began training for the open water competition following his graduation from Harvard in May. As a member of the Crimson swimming team, which competes solely in indoor competitions, Meyer had little time to train for the open water event.

“He trained all spring while most of the seniors were having a good time,” said Crimson coach Tim Murphy, who helped Meyer train for the competition even after Meyer graduated. “He’s put a lot of [training] volume in.”

Just one week after Meyer received his diploma, he traveled to Long Beach, Calif., to compete in the U.S. National Open Water Swimming Championships, at which he secured two fourth place finishes in the 5k and 10k, qualifying him for this past week’s international competition in Canada.

In the weeks leading up to the FINA World Open Water Swimming Championships, Meyer trained with Murphy, often swimming at the nearby Walden Pond.

“He’s only been a pool swimmer so he focused on the pool all through college. But he has loved open water swimming since he was 13,” said Meyer’s mother, Shawn Meyer, following the competition. “This summer, he graduated and was able to focus on open water exclusively.”

The training seems to have paid off, as Meyer took home the gold after competing in just his second career 25k race.

In his first 25k competition at the 2009 World Aquatics Championships in Rome, Meyer was in fourth place near the end of the 25k competition when he was disqualified for swimming across the legs of a swimmer from another competition.

“It was heartbreaking for him,” Shawn Meyer said. “I think it made him more determined… I know that [this gold medal] is immensely important to him.”

While both Murphy and Meyer’s mother were not in attendance at the competition, Murphy said he received a picture on his phone of Meyer standing on the podium with the gold medal around his neck and the American flag above his head.

“There can’t be too much sweeter than that,” Murphy said.

Now that Meyer has taken home the gold for the United States at the World Open Water Swimming Championships, his goal is to represent the country at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, according to his mother. Open water swimming was first introduced as an Olympic sport at the 2008 summer games held in Beijing.

“Needless to say, he’s got a lot of ground to cover to get there,” Murphy said.

While at Harvard, the former co-captain managed to rewrite the Crimson record books, notching the second-fasted time in school history in the 1,650 free. Meyer posted a time of 14:58.13 at the NCAA Championships in the event, good for a 14th place finish.

“He’s just made a huge contribution to the program,” Murphy said, “He will be hugely missed. He just came in from day one and was competitive.”

Meyer could not be reached for comment Thursday afternoon.

After years of training in an exhausting, distance-intensive swim program, she was physically fatigued.

A shoulder injury suffered during the previous year set Coughlin back in her training and her overbearing coach was draining her emotionally.

The future NCAA champion and U.S. Olympian even thought about quitting.

Looking to compete in-state during college, the Bay Area native needed someone with a different coaching mentality. Someone who would help nurture her back into loving the sport again.

Cal swim coach Teri McKeever was just that person.

Growing up as the oldest of ten children, McKeever was responsible for helping care for her younger siblings. This helped her develop the caring and encouraging attitude that so many of her future athletes needed.

“She is maternal,” Coughlin says of her coach. “She is a caregiver and it comes through in her (coaching) style.”

The coaching that McKeever has imparted on to her team for 18 years at Spieker Aquatics Complex is grounded in unconventional thinking.

“I am a coach that likes to coach and teach through concepts,” McKeever says. “An elite level athlete can learn something in a different way and apply it with a much deeper, complex understanding of the concept.”

She focuses on the technicalities of the body’s movement through the water, teaching them to her team through dance practice, yoga, cycling and other out-of-pool exercises.

Her different approach challenges the traditional coaching paradigms that focus on drilling repetition.

However unique the coach’s philosophies were, they appealed to Coughlin, along with McKeever’s relaxed attitude. Long past Coughlin’s collegiate career, they are still together as coach and student, with McKeever helping prepare Coughlin for her third Olympic Games in 2012.

“Our personalities have meshed,” Coughlin says. “It is not always a relationship that works. The way she coaches works for me and I want to finish my career with her.”

That decorated career has brought 11 Olympic medals, including a six medal performance in Beijing in 2008 – a record for a female.

McKeever was by her side in both 2004 and 2008, making history as the first female coach on the U.S. swimming team.

Coughlin is not the only swimmer whom the Bears’ coach has turned around.

Dana Volmer, a former Olympian and NCAA Swimmer of the Year for Cal, suffered a back injury while competing for a typical yardage-based program at Florida. She needed the same healing Coughlin did and found it in McKeever as well.

“Not only is (McKeever) taking less heralded kids and getting them to overachieve, but she is taking fallen stars who were left for dead and coaching them to newer heights in a sport where that doesn’t happen,” says Michael Silver, a Cal alum and current Yahoo! sportswriter who co-wrote Coughlin’s autobiography, Golden Girl.

Indeed, superstars like Coughlin and Volmer are not the only potential Bears that the coach attracts.

McKeever says that she looks for someone who is “coachable, with self-awareness, who is honest with themselves, held to a high standard and works well with others.”

The style of coaching that McKeever puts forth and the successful program she has built allow for her to look for recruits who will complement her uniqueness and build her team.

Part of her individuality comes with going against expectations.

After her fourteenth season with the Bears in 2006, McKeever was offered the head coaching position at USC. It was an opportunity that many would have thought irresistible to her.

Her father had been an All-American guard for the Trojans’ football team and McKeever eventually followed her father’s footsteps to earn her own All-American honors in a USC swim cap.

It was there that she found her way into the world of collegiate coaching as an assistant.

Yet, she remained in Berkeley.

“The main reason (for staying) was that I was proud of what I had built here,” McKeever says. “I was proud of the team culture, the environment, the type of women we were attracting. We were on the verge of some great things.”

Her intuition served her well.

Few people could have forecasted that the ninth-ranked swim team in the nation would take home its first ever NCAA championship in 2008.

McKeever credited every team member’s hard work for the win. The team aspect of swimming is something she always recognizes and teaches.

“I want someone who is willing to be a part of a team,” McKeever says. “It’s a belief in something bigger than themselves.”

Her team-oriented approach shines in a sport dominated with indidvidual accolades, and it is yet another element of a unique coaching style filled with experimentation.

“The more you understand yourself and like who you see in the mirror and being proud of that person,” McKeever says, “that is what I do every day out by the pool.”

“Swimming’s a sport where you’ve got to swim your fastest one week of the year,” U. California-Berkeley freshman Tom Shields said. “And we picked the right week.”

The Bears shocked the swimming community with an incredible run at the national championship, including a surge on the second day that left Cal atop the leader board. The Bears were eventually overtaken by Texas, and took a respectable second place finish after placing fourth for two consecutive years.

Cal’s performance seemed to surprise everyone but the team. Hopes for a national title may have seemed lofty after regular season losses to Arizona and Stanford.

The regular season, however, proved it wasn’t a true indicator of the Bears’ capabilities. The team’s season-long focus was preparing for NCAAs, making its training arguably more important than the actual meets.

The fall consisted mostly of experience meets and an intense training regimen, which included a 15-day training camp in Colorado Springs, Colo., during winter break.

The team’s first real test of the season came from a Wildcats team that arrived in Berkeley on the heels of beating then-No. 2 Stanford. Though they overwhelmed Arizona for the majority of the meet, a failure to maintain a lead was fatal for the Bears.

“I think it taught us not to be complacent,” junior Josh Daniels said. “You need to be racing as hard as you can throughout the entire meet.”

Cal elected to put itself at a disadvantage in the meet by not resting from its grueling training. This was a conscious decision on the part of coach David Durden, who wanted to withhold advantages until the post-season.

In individual races, the Bears again struggled to maintain their leads against Stanford, losing multiple races in the final five yards.

“The loss to Stanford taught us to get our hand on the wall, to finish strong,” Daniels said.

With lessons learned and race experienced gained, the Bears’ confidence was not shaken by the losses. Durden structured his team to succeed in the championship meet format, which allows for more swimmers to score. The head-to-head dual meets were not the team’s focal point.

“Our mentalities are not going to be faltered by a dual meet,” Daniels said. “All the dual meets do is improve your rank. And we don’t care about rank until after NCAAs.”

Despite fatigue, the Bears took home five individual and three relay titles at the Pac-10 championships. But it was not enough to deny Stanford its 29th consecutive conference title.

Finally, at the highly anticipated NCAA championships, the Bears were ready to lay their cards on the table.

“(Durden) doesn’t want anybody to know what we can do until NCAAs,” Shields said. “We were sitting on the last night, and he was almost bummed, like we’re on everyone’s radar now.”

They captured national attention by winning three individual titles behind Shields (100-yard butterfly), junior Nathan Adrian (100 freestyle) and junior Damir Dugonjic (100-yard breaststroke), and four relay crowns.

The team believes this year is the beginning of a dynasty that will vault Cal into one of the top programs in the nation.

“I don’t think we’re going to leave the top four for a while. Or top two.” Shields said.

On Sunday, the men’s swimming and diving team members were named national champions in Columbus, Ohio, and the tower was lit Tuesday in recognition of its achievement.

The win capped off a memorable season for coach Eddie Reese and his men. The Longhorns only had one loss the entire season, which came against the then-No. 2 Arizona Wildcats at the end of January. Since then, Texas went on to bigger and better things, such as winning a 14th consecutive Big 12 Conference title and a 10th national championship.

In his 32nd year at Texas, Reese has implemented a unique coaching system that gets the best performance out of his swimmers.

“I’m not easily satisfied, mainly with myself. I’m always trying to learn more and get better at what I do, and I don’t care who I ask in order to find that out,” Reese said. “I’ll call someone who coaches a club team, and if they had a good year, I want to find out how and why they had a good year.”

Reese is ranked second all-time in NCAA championships with 10 championships to his name, just one behind former Ohio State coach Mike Peppe. He said he believes this championship is no different from any of his national titles.

“Any time you win in the NCAAs, it doesn’t matter if it’s checkers or throwing darts blindfolded, there’s always a lot of people out there that want to win and compete against you, so it’s a great honor to win this and a credit to the guys and the hard work they’ve done,” Reese said.

The veteran coach also achieved another landmark. He became the first coach in NCAA Division One swimming and diving history to win titles in four different decades.

Competing at the top level is always a grueling task, but Texas managed an individual and relay title in addition to its title push. Freshman Austin Surhoff shone, becoming the second Longhorn to win the 200 individual medley. Olympic gold medalist and senior Ricky Berens was part of a quartet of swimmers who won Texas’ second-straight 800 freestyle relay.

The delayed commencement of the NCAA championships was difficult for Berens and his colleagues to cope with.

“With us getting sick, it really put us back, and we had to change the mentality of a lot of the teammates and get us back on the right track,” Berens said. “Our young guys did incredible. Austin Surhoff winning a national title as a freshman … to swim lights-out was a huge step up as freshmen.”

Ahead of Texas’ postseason stretch, assistant coach Kris Kubik credited the seniors’ leadership as a major catalyst for the team’s success. Berens was fantastic for the Longhorns all season and won the Big 12 men’s Outstanding Swimmer of the Meet along the way. He was co-captain of the team and set the example for his younger teammates.

“I’d tell them to go for the goals that you aim for all year long and stay focused,” Berens said. “We stayed pretty calm this year, leadership-wise. We had me, Alan Maher and Hill Taylor as captains, and it was really relaxed because we had a lot of fun this year.”

Berens set the standard for Texas this year, being the fastest Longhorn in four events: the 200 freestyle, 400 freestyle relay and the 100 and 200 butterfly.

This is Berens’ last season at the University, but the Olympian doesn’t plan on leaving the Forty Acres too soon.

“I’ll still be here training with Eddie and Kris because you can’t really beat the coaching staff you have here,” Berens said. “I love Austin as a city, I love this team, I love the coaches, so I’m stuck here training for London 2012.”