SPLASHING AROUND
By Pete Mollica
Youngstown State senior distance swimmer Natasha Bray is having a big season for the Penguins.
YOUNGSTOWN — When Natasha Bray was a senior at Red Lion Area High School in York, Pa., she was trying to decide just where she wanted to continue her education and her swimming career.
She looked into schools like Wright State, California of Pennsylvania and West Chester State. Then she got a letter from Youngstown State and after one visit decided that was where she wanted to go.
Four years later, Bray, a senior distance swimmer with the Penguins, is having one of her best seasons.
“I came here back then and saw the facilities and met [head coach] Matt [Anderson] and I knew this was where I wanted to come,” Bray said.
Anderson said that he saw Bray’s times over the Internet, which is the way most swimming coaches do their recruiting these days, although Anderson and his staff does get out and see quite a bit of action during the summer and off season.
“Everybody’s pools are 25 and 50 meters long so the times are the same throughout the country,” he said. “Once you find the times, then you meet the players and in Natasha’s case, we immediately wanted her here.”
Although Bray is one of the team’s top distance swimmers, another distance swimmer was recruited the same year as Bray. Olivia Arnold of Rutherglen, Australia, came in and rewrote the record books at YSU. Both are now seniors.
“She’s [Arnold] my best friend in the pool and out of it, we’re roommates,” Bray said. “I know that she’s pushed me to be a better swimmer and I think that I’ve helped her to become even better. It’s been a great four years.”
Arnold holds the school record in the 500-yard freestyle, 1000 yard freestyle and 1,650 yard freestyle, while Bray is second in the 1000 and 1650.
Bray had her best times of 10:37.66 in the 1000 and 17:54.00 in the 1650 in last week’s meet at Cleveland State. The Penguins will be in action again Saturday at Green Bay in a triangular meet that also includes Illinois State.
Bray and the rest of the Penguins are looking to the Horizon League championships next month where Bray feels the team has a good chance to place.
“Realistically we’d be happy with a third or fourth place, but we’ll have to be at our best to reach that goal,” she said.
Bray and the rest of the Penguins are still walking on air after coming back from a 10-day training trip to Hawaii.
“It was just unbelievable,” she added. “The weather, the country just everything. It was my first trip there and I want to go back again.”
Anderson said that the team had been holding all sorts of fund raisers for the past three years to get to Hawaii.
“We always take a trip somewhere south, last year it was Florida,” Anderson said, “but we’ve been to Puerto Rico and the Bahamas and it’s great recruiting tool.”
“Obviously, we can’t go to Hawaii every year, but we try to go to someplace different every two years and we’re trying to make the Hawaii trip every four years,” Anderson said.
Anderson said that Beeghly Center’s Natatorium is a great facility, probably the second best in the Horizon League.
“Cleveland State’s facility is probably better and Illinois-Chicago is comparable, but I think ours is better,” he said.
Anderson would love to host the Horizon League championships. But according to the league rules the pool must have two 3-meter diving boards and Beeghly has only one.
“There is another issue about our first two lanes of the pool not being deep enough, but both issues possible could be worked out in the future,” he said. “We’d definitely love to host the meet.”
mollica@vindy.com