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Lighthearted Oesting leads women swimmers

After an up and down collegiate career, senior is back in top form

By Ross Bersot

Waking up early enough to remind the rooster to crow on her way to morning practice is normal for Megan Oesting. Her reward for rising before the sun and making it to the pool on time is getting to swim thousands of yards in water that makes the Arctic Ocean seem like a jacuzzi. After thawing out, she must attend class like a normal UCLA senior until the time comes for afternoon practice, where she will swim some more and visit the gym for weightlifting and aerobics.

Oesting does more work in a single day than Congress does in an entire session. She thrives in an environment in which most people would collapse by making fun her first priority.

"I think if you enjoy working hard, being with your friends, pushing yourself and competing, you're going to do great because you're having fun," Oesting said.

Oesting hasn't always been so happy-go-lucky. Before coming to college, she focused solely on swimming and her achievements within the sport, neglecting the other facets of her life in order to meet her extremely high personal goals.

"In high school, you could eat, sleep and breathe swimming," Oesting said. "That is all you had to concentrate on. Everything was so easy. You had all this time and energy to focus on your sport."

Her one-track mind allowed her astounding achievements in the pool as she raced to Washington state records in the 50, 100 and 200-yard freestyle and the 200 free relay and gained eight individual state championships. She kept up the pace after graduating from Mercer Island High School, earning a gold medal in the 400 free relay and a silver in the 100 free at the 1991 Pan American Games in Cuba.

Swimming in top form, Oesting began her career at UCLA in 1991. She cruised through her first collegiate season, competing in the 50, 100 and 200 free at the NCAA Championships and earning All-American status as part of the Bruins' eighth-place 800 free relay team.

At the end of the season, the college lifestyle caught up with the freshman and she began to falter. High, though normally attainable, standards gradually slipped out of reach and, for the first time in her career, Oesting began to doubt herself.

"I was just a normal freshman with different teammates, in a different program. We did a lot of different things and I just had a hard time getting used to it. That seed of doubt was planted and once you start doubting yourself it's over," Oesting said. "At the end of my freshman year I started going downhill. You set goals that you think are reasonable and maybe you set one that is too high and you go lower than that and you start thinking, 'What is wrong with me, what am I doing?'"

Oesting spent her sophomore and junior years trying to get away from swimming as the driving force behind her life. The difficulties involved in letting go of the sport that dominated her life for 10 years caused her times to rise and her performance to fall.

"College is the weaning process of something that was so important for eight or 10 years to something that is just another part of life," said Oesting. "My priorities changed. Once you get to college, school is a little harder and it means more, so you work more on that. You're learning about yourself in terms of friendships and relationships and teammates. Swimming isn't everything. Swimming is a great part of having a great time in college. Things are more well-rounded. You don't base your whole life on how you swim at the end of the season, you base it on how you're doing during the season with your friends and with school."

Though she could regret not performing at the elite level she once approached, Oesting is thankful that she concentrated on life outside of the pool, so that after her final meet in March, life without swimming won't be as hard to cope with.

"I think that I might be fortunate to not have had as much success as I would have liked earlier in collegiate swimming," Oesting said. "If I had success I probably would have stayed awfully focused, which would have been narrow-minded. I might not have grown up the way I have. I think I've learned a lot through swimming in college, in terms of the other things out there that are just as important."

Now in the midst of her final year on the team, Oesting's times are approaching those of earlier years. She intends to contribute not only through her races, but by keeping things lighthearted and providing positive reinforcement for the freshmen swimmers. Not only will this help the team in its drive to the NCAAs, it will also provide a positive end to her career.

"My main goal this year is to have fun through my relationships with my teammates and my coaches. I want to help the freshmen get off on the right foot," Oesting said."I've got to try and make this fun, because I'm not going to have it in a year."

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