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Beth Gillig Interview
TS: Hello I’m here with Beth Gillig. She is a Grinnell College sophomore and she is
also this week’s Midwest Conference Women’s Swimming and Diving Performer of the Week.
Congratulations Beth. You’re coming off a meet with Macalester, there you had three
event victories, you won the 100 butterfly, the 400 IM, and the 200 medley relay. Talk
about your performance up there.
BG: I was really happy with my performance. I got a best time in the 400 IM. I got my
season best in the 100 fly. I actually swam another event the 100 breaststroke which I
got my best time ever in, though I didn’t get first in it or anything I was very proud
of that.
TS: Sounds like a very complete effort up there by you.
BG: Yeah it was a good meet.
TS: Which of these events is your best would you say?
BG: The 100 fly.
TS: You have the top time in the conference right now in that, was that expected?
BG: It wasn’t. I actually haven’t swum it that much this season. I was really happy
when I looked up there and I saw that time. I was like “oh, ok I did that, cool.”
TS: As mentioned you’re a sophomore so it’s your second year with the program. You had
a strong season last year, you’ve obviously continued that. What have you improved on
most from last year to this year?
BG: I definitely worked on technique on my fly. We just came back from our Florida trip
two weeks ago and I worked on fly a lot down there. It’s really improved this season.
TS: How about the experience of just having one year under your belt? How much does that
help?
BG: It’s helped a lot just knowing what’s coming and being prepared for it. It’s really
let me focus more on just trying harder in practices. Knowing what’s ahead is really
nice.
TS: The nice thing is that you have a lot of teammates who are performing well too.
It seems like the team is really picking up steam as the season is going on. Talk about
the team’s performance this season.
BG: The team is doing so well. There’s so many people doing great things every meet.
We’re really tired right now; we haven’t even started tapering for conference. Seeming
people get season best times is really motivating for me to see other people doing well, then
you want to try harder yourself.
TS: You had talked about the Florida trip, that has to be a great bonding experience
for the team. Talk about that.
BG: I love it. You live with your teammates in the same room, you hang out. You have really
hard practices together so you can all kind of commiserate about them together. It’s
a great experience; you get so much closer with your teammates when you do that.
TS: Not to mention the nice weather.
BG: Yes the weather was great this year.
TS: As we’re doing this when you’re watching it’s probably about ten degrees below zero
right now. Talk about your goals for the rest of the season.
BG: One of my goals is for the 100 fly I really want to break a minute because I’m really
close to that. Also both my older sisters swam. One of my sisters her best time was
a minute so I really want to get 59 just to get the family record. That’s one of my
goals.
TS: Family bragging rights, correct?
BG: Yes, a little bit.
TS: Alright again this is Beth Gillig, this week’s Midwest Conference Women’s Swimming
and Diving Performer of the Week. Congratulations and good luck.
BG: Thank you so much.