By John Jackson, Staff Writer
Rich Llewellyn is a senior on the men’s swimming and diving team for Manhattan College. Recently, he had two first place finishes, a second place finish and swam on a winning medley-relay team in a meet against Fairfield.
Llewellyn was named Manhattan’s ATAX Student-Athlete of the Week for his performance on October 10-17, which included the Fairfield meet. Llewellyn has found success during his swimming career at Manhattan as he has broken the school record in the 200 yard fly in his freshman year and proceeded to break that same record two more times in his sophomore and junior years respectively.
The Quadrangle: You got a couple of first-place finishes against Fairfield. This has been something you have done over and over again here at Manhattan. As a senior, what can you say about your time on the swimming team?
Rich Llewellyn: It’s been a long road. I’ve been swimming since I was 11 or 10, so I’ve been really loving this sport so far. I’ve been trying to do my best, do the best I can ever do for my teammates and all that. Just trying to get the win.
TQ: You’re also a mechanical engineer major. How do you balance a difficult subject like that along with swimming?
RL: I mean it’s hard. It’s really all about time management I feel. You have to know when you got to study. Obviously when you’re in the pool and when you’re lifting you have to worry about school. So you have to worry about swimming, but I mean I think it’s really time management. You just have to set aside a few hours in the day just to study and get yourself together.
TQ: When you’re swimming in an event, what is more important: getting the first place finish or doing a good time in the event?
RL: Well it depends which meets we are talking about. For dual meets it’s all about placing. Our best times when we’re in-season is called ‘swimming tired’ so we’re not really as rested or we’re not feeling as good as we normally would say if we’re at a championship meet. So for a dual meet it’s all about the placing, but if I’m at a championship meet, then obviously placing is still important don’t get me wrong, but it’s more about, in my opinion, the times.
TQ: Do you have a favorite Olympic swimmer or professional swimmer?
RL: I guess everybody probably answers this question as Michael Phelps. He’s good. I also like Nathan Adrian. He’s cool. He’s a sprint freestyler.
TQ: What’s one thing you’d like to see happen here during your last year on the swimming team?
RL: This is my last year of course, and it’s been a long road and I’m not obviously giving up, but I’m trying to finish strong and all that. I just want to be able to look back at this year and these four years and just be happy with what I put into this program.
TQ: What’s one of your favorite memories over the course of the years?
RL: I think my best memory swimming-wise on this team is when I broke the 200 fly record my freshman year.