ECU's Parker takes aim at NCAA title
March 18, 2004 | Men's Swimming and Diving
Many East Carolina University students will be enjoying themselves during spring break this week, soaking in the rays at a sun-drenched beach cluttered with partygoers.
ECU swimmer Diane Parker will also spend her break near the water. Her story is a different one, however.
Parker will be competing in the NCAA Division I Swimming & Diving Championships in College Station, Texas today, after becoming only the second woman in ECU history to qualify for the event. For her, the trade-off is well worth it.
"I knew that I couldn't make any plans for spring break because there was a chance that I could qualify," Parker, 21, said. "I have worked really hard for this, and I'm excited."
The junior punched her ticket to this year's meet with her record-breaking qualifying time at the Conference USA Championships two weeks ago. Parker, who won the 200-meter individual medley, also set a meet record in the 100-meter breaststroke (1:02.67), where she made the NCAA provisional cut. The performance also earned her Conference USA Swimmer of the Year honors for the second straight season.
After coming up just short the last two years, Parker was thrilled when she qualified for nationals this season. She joins Meredith Bridgers, whose school records Parker has broken, as the only Pirate women ever to do so.
"I tried really hard last year and when I didn't make it, it was kind of a bummer," Parker said. "But this year when I came up out of the water I had a feeling that I might have done it by the reactions of the coaches, who were all jumping up and down."
Fifth-year ECU assistant coach Chris Feaster said that the coaching staff knew Parker was capable of big things.
"When we recruited her, we really thought she had the potential to be an ECU record breaker," Feaster said. "I know that breaking Meredith Bridgers' records has been one of her goals, too.
"Now she's going to one of the fastest meets in the world, comparable to the Olympics, and its going to be exciting to see how she does and how we match up with the best."
Parker qualified 26th out of 31 swimmers competing in this year's meet.
She will swim in the 200 individual medley today and the 100 breaststroke and 100 butterfly on Friday.
"I've been swimming for a while, and competed in many meets, but this is definitely the biggest and fastest that I've ever been to," Parker said. "There are going to be some good, fast, athletic swimmers there and I'm a little nervous.
"But it's a good nervous."
Entering the event, she has certainly set achievable goals for herself.
"I wouldn't say that I'm going to be the fastest there," Parker said. "I think that I have the chance to move up though, and I think that's a good goal to have going in.
"I just want to finish faster than what I go in at."
Parker began swimming when she was six, but says by age 10 she was in the pool every day of the year, eventually progressing into two times a day throughout the year.
"A coach told me that to be a better swimmer, it takes a little more effort so that's what I tried to do," Parker said.
By the end of her high school days in Maryland, Parker decided to live with her mother and attend Georgia Perimeter College where she competed with the Swim Atlanta Swim Team and renowned coach Chris Davis.
Following a recruiting visit, she made the decision to attend ECU.
"I didn't really think that I was ready for a big school when I finished high school and I had the big opportunity to swim with Coach Davis so I took it," Parker said. "I had never really heard of ECU until I got a recruiting letter, but then I came and everyone was so nice, the coaches were great and I had a lot of fun.
"It's also close to the beach, which is nice, too."
She will find plenty of time to spend at the beach once her spring break is done. Until then, it's business as usual.
