Lennox: Freshman Flymaster

Winning. For some, it is the only thing. For others, it's an unattainable goal. For most, it's the motivation for hours and hours of toil and physical wear. For freshman swimmer Doug Lennox and many others on the men's swimming team, it is what brings him to the pool every day.

"It's something that keeps you coming back," the Lake Forest, Ill., native said. "Not necessarily winning itself, but the desire to win. It's a desire shared throughout our team."

Lennox has already tallied several wins this season, including two individual wins and two relay wins at the Tigers' most recent meet, the Brown Invitational. He participated in the winning 200- and 400-yard medley relays and pulled out a close win in the 100 freestyle and an impressive 1.5 second victory in the 100 butterfly.

Lennox's time of 48.55 seconds in the 100 butterfly, a lifetime best, was under the NCAA B-Standard of 48.66. While attaining the A-standard time of 47.25 would automatically qualify Lennox for the NCAA Championships, the B-standard places him into consideration for qualifying.

Lennox was not too surprised by his time.

"I had already swum a 47.7 relay split against Cornell, though I didn't rest as much before the Brown meet," Lennox said. "It's not that I expected to swim that time, but it was certainly a goal going into the meet ... Higher goals are now more attainable, since I hit a lifetime best mid-season."

Though Lennox is consistently beating many upperclassmen, he has been received warmly on the team. According to Lennox, the upperclassmen realize that this year's team is very young and dependent on the success of the many freshmen.

"Plus," Lennox said, "[the upperclassmen] use our success as a challenge to themselves, as a motivating factor."

In the team's annual Orange v. Black intrasquad meet, Lennox, with the encouragement of some of the team's upperclassmen, completed the "iron man" by swimming every event in the meet.

"It was bad," Lennox said. "I got cramps in the 100 fly as soon as I dove in, but I still swam through it."

Princeton is not the first place at which Lennox has been a master of the fly. He began competitively swimming at age 8, and he credits much of his current success to his old club team, which emphasized the difficult stroke along with longer-distance training. He maintains that he still likes to practice the backstroke and breaststroke, but that the butterfly has been and always will be his specialty.

"Fly takes lots of discipline," Lennox said, "and many swimmers are afraid to work at it. You have to be very coordinated, have the right guidance from coaches and be very willing to practice."

According to Lennox, the key to the butterfly is establishing a rhythm with the entire body, something that can only be attained through hours in the water.

Lennox, along with the rest of the swim team, certainly puts in the effort. A typical week for the team includes six afternoon practices and four morning practices. Each practice is typically comprised of 5,000 to 7,000 yards, including a team warm-up and group practices based on specialties.

According to Lennox, choosing Princeton over other schools was not extremely difficult. He knew he wanted to use swimming to get into an academically strong school, but it was both the current swimmers and head coach C. Rob Orr that drew him to Princeton.

"The team was great to me on my recruiting visit," Lennox said, "and [Orr] was always very relaxed and very honest throughout the whole process."

Two swimmers who especially influenced Lennox's decision were juniors Dave Ashley and Meir Hasbani, both of whom were on Lennox's club team before Princeton. Lennox was especially close to Ashley, who attended the same school as Lennox and at one time dated Lennox's older sister. In all, Lennox said he knew seven or eight Princeton swimmers from the Chicago area, all of whom said good things about Orr and the program.

In all likelihood, Lennox has not seen the last of his wins. With the guidance of Orr and the model being set by the upperclassmen, Lennox could become one of the Tigers' most dominating and dangerous swimmers over the course of the next four years, and could leave Princeton with one of the most enviable titles of all: "Winner."