Aukerman Looks at Life after WSU
9/30/2015 4:00:00 AM | Swimming & Diving
After a more than stellar, four-year career for the Wright State swim program, Kile Aukerman has been busy training in south Florida for the next step in life. He is attempting to qualify for the Olympics Trials.
To do that, the Cincinnati, OH native swims and trains hard each day among the nation's top swimmers and under the best coaches. These swimmers include world-record holder, Jamaica's Alia Atkinson, and US Olympian Claire Donahue. Along with Aukerman, a number of other Olympians train under coaches for the South Florida Aquatic Club, Bruce Marchionda and Chris Anderson.
While at WSU, he set the school record in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 54.40 and was part of two relay records in the 200 and 400 medley. In 2015, the Raiders finished third at the Horizon League Meet, which was its highest finish since 2009.
Kile was nice enough to take a few minutes from his tight schedule to answer a few questions and give us an update on his life since WSU.
Q. First off, tell the Raider fans what you have been up to since Wright State?
A. After graduating, I decided to take a year off of school to pursue my athletic dreams of qualifying for the US Olympic Trials. Just like the Olympics, this meet is held every four years and it just so happened to fall almost exactly a year after graduation. Since I am not currently going to school, I have a lot of extra time to really step up my training and to do everything possible to increase my chances of accomplishing my goals.
Q. What does a typical training day look like?
A. Training varies day to day. Monday, Wednesday and Friday our main practice is from 7:45 to 10:15, which usually consists of stroke specific work and pacing. We practice again those days from 3 to 4:30 in the afternoon. Those practices are usually shorter, working on speed and resistance training. Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays we only have one practice from 7:45 to 10:15 that is mostly long endurance training. On those days, we supplement about an hour of strength training and cardio in the weight room. Sunday, thankfully, is a day off to recover from the week of hard training.
Q. How did Wright State swimming help you prepare?
A. Wright State is the main reason I am lucky enough to be in this situation. Before coming to Wright State qualifying for Olympic trials was not even a feasible goal. The improvements I have made and the knowledge I have gained from swimming at Wright State is what I credit most of my success to. The program at Wright State always did a great job of showing me that I am capable of far more than I ever thought possible. I cannot think of a program that was more suitable at preparing me for my goals than Wright State.
Q. Why move all the way to Florida for your training?
A. Why not? But seriously, I am lucky enough to have parents who have been so supportive through this whole endeavor. They told me I needed to do whatever was best for me, and Florida ended up being just that. There were a lot of criteria that went into finding a place to train for this year. The most important of which was I needed to train in an Olympic size pool. These qualifying standards can only be achieved in an Olympic size pool, so practicing in that type of pool is crucial. I also wanted to be surrounded by the best coaches and swimmers in the world. I needed a program that valued me and my goals and a team that traveled all around the country for the best competitions. I was lucky enough to find a club that had all that and more.
Q. Any advice for the current freshman class at WSU?
A. Swim like a maniac! Many people take swimming way to seriously. When it comes down to it, swimming is just swimming. All of the best swimmers I know do not care what other people think. They do not care what other people do, and they do not care how crazy their goals may seem all they seem to care about is going fast. Do not be afraid to try something that other people may think is crazy, because you have to be a little bit crazy to succeed in the sport of swimming.
Thanks for your time. We look forward to your successes there just like the ones you had at Wright State.
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