Selfless Hsiao dominates in DeNunzio

Some people say that swimming isn't a team sport. Spend a moment talking to senior Stephanie Hsiao, and you might reconsider.

Ask her about winning three individual events at last years Ivy League Championships, and she will tell you that she didn't really think about it, since she was so focused on helping the team to its fifth straight title.

Ask her about her team, and she will tell you they are a close-knit family bound together by mornings and afternoons of churning out workouts in DeNunzio Pool.

They are a family with a proud winning tradition, a tradition influenced over the last three years by Hsiao's winning ways.

After her senior year in high school in Irvine, Calif., Hsiao sought a school far from home since she liked the intensity of the East Coast, and the vibe it gave her. After her recruiting trip, there was never a doubt in her mind that she was meant to be a Tiger.

"I came; I loved the team; I loved the coach," Hsiao said. "I just knew this is the place for me — and I haven't looked back ever since."

Hsiao began her swimming career at age seven. At 10 she joined Irvine Novaquatics, a club team with which she competed through her senior year in high school, in addition to her commitments to her Irvine High School team.

As a young athlete, her club coach, Dave Salo, prepared her for life, both in leave it, while her parents and family supported her every step of the way.

"It wasn't easy for them, driving me to practice at 5:30 in the morning before I had my license," Hsiao said. "But they never ever questioned anything I wanted to do. They've always been behind me 100 percent."

At Princeton, practice starts a bit later, at 6:30 a.m., but the average student is still in a deep slumber.

Hsiao, who has been swimming double sessions since she was 13, said, "When you've done it for so long, it just becomes part of your routine, like I can't imagine not waking up, and not having that kind of structure."

At 4:30 p.m., when many students take a deep breath once classes are over, Hsiao and her teammates dive into the pool again. Practices range from aerobic swimming to more race-oriented lactate days.

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"It's hard, but I think that's what makes us better, those kind of workouts where you want to throw up after practice," Hsiao said.

It is workouts like those that earned Hsiao a trip to the NCAA Championships in both her sophomore and junior years. Only the nation's best are invited to the prestigious meet, and Hsiao was honored to qualify. Last year she swam in three events: the 100 breaststroke, 100 freestyle, and 200 individual medley.

While she finished 28th in the 100 breast - her best finish of the meet - the IM, in which one swims all four strokes in succession, has always been Hsiao's favorite event.

"I think when I started swimming I always liked the IM, because whenever I get bored swimming one stroke, I could switch to another," Hsiao said. "So I guess that's still true now, and it helps me keep everything balanced if I work on IM."

Last season, in a feat that Hsiao described as "very unexpected," she won three individual events at the Ivy League Championships to lead Princeton to victory in a close-fought contest at the top with Harvard.

"I guess I don't really think about it that much," Hsiao said. "I was definitely more focused on the team, and having the team behind me and everyone aiming for that team goal, I put aside individual [goals] and didn't even think about it until afterwards."

An East Asian studies major, Hsiao has found a way to blend her interests, her Chinese heritage and her passion for athletics into her senior thesis. She will spend her winter break abroad, interviewing coaches and athletes at the Beijing Sports University, to research the political role of sports in China.

After this year, Hsiao plans on working, but she confesses she really has no idea what her future will hold. In terms of swimming, she will be ready for a break from morning practices, but she knows the allure of the pool will eventually turn her into a masters swimmer — "one of those crazy people who gets up even earlier than 6:30 a.m. to swim."