Needing To Hear What They All Saw
Matheson's verbal cue put her and the Rams in a good spot
Mike Brohard
Everyone of them had the same thought.
Christopher Woodard looked at the numbers, the two personal-best times Lucy Matheson had posted at a club meet in December and the Colorado State women’s swimming and diving coach was impressed. When she finally arrived on campus as a transfer from New Mexico State, her teammates took note of how she was nailing workouts at practice, challenging to lead a lane.
They saw it all day after day, workout after workout. They all had the same idea, too – the Rams needed her now. Even her father, Mike, a veteran swim parent, was seeing the signs and hearing some positivity from his daughter’s side of the conversation.
Still, Woodard and the team also knew what had brought the Longmont product to the program. Lucy and her family had suffered a loss which shook them all and they needed each other. Personally, she needed some time and some support, and the teammates she moved in with were more than willing to be there for her. Unfortunately for Woodard and his team, they had grown accustomed to such needs in the past five seasons, giving them experience in an area they never wished they needed.
So whatever ideas or notions they held didn’t matter. Who mattered was Lucy.
“I think I always had that hope in the back of my mind, but we treated her with kid gloves at first,” Woodard said. “We knew it was going to be an adjustment coming back to Colorado, being a semester out of school, entirely new team dynamic and new coaching philosophies. I was hopeful her competitive juices would start flowing and flow quickly, but I wasn’t sure about that.
“That was part of the plan. If she comes in, I need to hear the words from her. It couldn’t be I see something and try to convince her. It had to come from her. And it did.”
Last year was a bit of a resurgence for Woodard’s squad. It started with an attitude adjustment, where the leadership of the Rams set a tone of expecting to win instead of hoping. A seasoned roster was bolstered by the addition of a freshman class which started posting impressive times and wins out of the gate.
At the semester break, the Rams were 13-0 in duals, highlighted by a win over rival Wyoming, the program’s first in 12 seasons. At that point, Lucy was signed with the team but not part of it quite yet. She was still living with her parents and swimming for her club team out of Boulder.
She had tried to return to New Mexico State but did so reluctantly. It was just too soon for her. She gave herself a month in her mind but lasted just a week. Returning home, she knew it where she needed to be, and she sensed it helped her parents, too. Her older brother was there for a bit, an added bonus.
“We both kind of got a deep breath, space and spent time with our parents. It was needed,” she said. “In January, I was ready to go back and start a new chapter.”
Before she had her first practice as a Ram, she had a breakout moment in the pool. Swimmers are used to and frustrated by the cycles they can experience. It can be months, even years, before they see significant drops in times. In that December meet, everything seemed to be perfect as she broke a nearly two-year dry spell in both the 200-yard backstroke and 200 butterfly.
She was stunned. That was a very important step, and Mike recognized it as such.
“I think it was a great confirmation for her that she’d carried her speed through this transition. She continued to really work in the offseason and was ready to bring that back to the school,” he said. “I think she was confident, but it was also an unusual circumstance. The thing with swimming is you tend to see the results of the work you put in. I think it was confirmation for her that it continued to be the case -- put in the work and you’ll see the results.”
She has that fierce competitor in her, a bit of a tongue on her. She came in, ‘why am I not swimming?’ It was something we considered the whole time, but good, now you’re verbalizing it so now I know she’s invested.Christopher Woodard
Just as important was she felt comfortable where she was and who surrounded her.
She had always considered Colorado State, and it was at the top of her list this time around. Her older sister, Eleanor, swam at Virginia Tech and some of her past club teammates from Flatirons – Julia Box and Haley Rowley -- had found Colorado State to be a place where they could regain their touch in the water. In Woodard and assistant Lisa Ginder, she felt she’d found coaches who understood what she needed, both in and out of the water, and understood the space she would occasionally need, sometimes at a moment’s notice.
She also needed a place to live, and four members of the team suddenly had a vacancy. So, seniors Elsa Litteken and Kate Meunier, along with junior Katelyn Bartley and sophomore Megan Hager welcomed her with open arms.
“They had an empty room starting in January, so it was a perfect situation, and they were so supportive. Elsa and Kate were so good to me,” Lucy said. “I moved in, the girls were so supportive, showed me the ropes. Especially since it was the last few months of their senior year.
“I was pretty closed off about certain things. My roommates knew, but I wasn’t talking about things for a while. Once I opened up, allowed myself to be fully open, they were 100 percent behind me.”
Like their coach, they knew those were the conversations she had to start. When she did, they were there for whatever she needed, be it an ear to listen, somebody to lean on, a hug or in some cases some space to herself.
At practice, they were all very impressed. Getting to know her, Hager was floored.
“Knowing she needed support she came in and opened up in the household and the ways we could support her,” Hager said. “There were times when she would be, ‘are we doing something tonight?,’ or, ‘I can’t go to practice because I was up all night.’ Her being so vulnerable to us allowed us to help her however she needed. Ultimately, I think a lot of Lucy’s success is because she is such a strong individual.
“I respect the hell out of her. It’s insane.”
As successful as the season was, it was also weird. At one point, the Rams had to leave Moby Pool and go train at the Morris Fieldhouse pool, which ran 30 meters and had no blocks. Oh, and the covid pandemic was still a thing. The Rams had swimmers in and out of the water because of it, and of the four second-half duals which were scheduled, only one actually made it to competition.
At Air Force near the end of January. It had been 63 days since the Rams had last raced.
His plan was always the same. The base was Lucy would redshirt and find her way back to form and be ready to go for the 2022-23 season. That was unless she changed her mind.
Oh, and they all kind of hoped she would.
“Woody was saying she’d redshirt, but at the same time, we had seen her times she went in December. Our early talks with her, she wanted to ask Woody to score in events,” Hager said. “We knew where she was at. I was close to my PR’s at midseason, so I was like, I’m going to have a good season. She actually lifetime PR’d in December, so close to our championship meet not on a full taper. Because I was there and she was talking to us the most, we thought it would be a good idea if she scored at conference because we knew she could score.”
Hager knew it was not their call, either. What impressed Hager even more is when her new teammate showed her ability to stand up and voice what she wanted and how she needed it at the time.
The signs Lucy was giving them was she was going to walk into Woodard’s office and …
“I think he was a little surprised. I think he was happy it was my idea,” Lucy said. “I was, ‘I want to go to the meet, and he was, ‘OK, no pressure.’
“When I first came in, I didn’t want to be overwhelmed. I don’t want this semester to take me by surprise. I wanted to do well in classes, get through it and make friends and I didn’t want the pressure of swimming, so he was very laid back. He didn’t want to put any of the pressure on me I didn’t want on myself. I think he was happy I wanted to be part of the team and go.”
So, Lucy’s version is she asked why she wasn’t swimming.
In a good way, Woodard recalls it differently.
“It was more like, ‘why am I not swimming this meet?,’” he said. “She has that fierce competitor in her, a bit of a tongue on her. She came in, ‘why am I not swimming?’ It was something we considered the whole time, but good, now you’re verbalizing it so now I know she’s invested.”
Easing her back in was still part of the plan. Maybe she would just swim exhibition. No, she wanted to try to score. She was confident she could. Even still, Woodard felt it was safer just to give her a couple of swims, the two events where she’d blown past her old times.
What a debut it was, and the Rams needed it all. Even the additional swim she added as the meet at more than 7,200 feet was taking place.
First, she won the 200 butterfly in 2:05.55, leading a 1-2-3 finish for the Rams. A break and three events later, she won the 200 backstroke in 2:05.60, points the Rams really needed in a tight dual. She was holding up so well, the decision was made to add her to the 200 individual medley, where she placed second in 2:08.16 as the Rams capped a perfect 14-0 season with a narrow victory over the Falcons.
“I was very surprised. I swam the 200 fly, and I’ve swam at Air Force a bunch, and the elevation is brutal,” Lucy said. “I swam that race and went a 2:05, so I was very happy, but I didn’t know how much of it was adrenaline and excitement. I felt like I needed to swim fast because we went in undefeated and I’m the only thing that’s different here. Everything else on the team was the same, so if we lose, I’m the only factor that’s different. I’d definitely wanted to put as many points on the board as possible.”
Now she was out of the bag, so to speak, the Mountain West Championships were on the horizon, and she was feeling energized. Better yet, ready.
In the process of the dual, she found some of the pressure she sought to avoid she was ready to shoulder again.
“I know. I think it helped in some respects,” she said. “Like I definitely feel like I was close to the team because I went to that dual and conference. I feel it helped me cement my swimming place on the team. I put the pressure on myself, but I knew I could handle it. I knew I could swim fast. I just needed the little extra push. We came in undefeated, I wanted to leave undefeated. I do well under pressure, I think. The Air Force dual was definitely a good amount of pressure.”
Her big events were toward the end of conference, and she came through in a big way. She placed 12th in the 200 backstroke, posting a 2:01.10. She capped the meet by reaching the ‘A’ final of the 200 butterfly with her time of 2:00.76 putting her in seventh place.
She also found her way into the CSU record book, her butterfly time ranking fifth-best in program history.
Naturally, her family was excited to see her in a good place, in and out of the pool. Mike said not just the swim team, but the university, has been more than supportive of his daughter, feeling they’ve made it a priority for not just her, but all students, to have a positive experience.
For that, he and his family are grateful. As for her swims – everything, really – he gives credit to his daughter.
“Lucy’s owned her athletic career since she was little. I was pleased to see she felt she was ready to compete, and then it was all up to her,” he said. “We’ve said that in terms of her education and her athletic career. I think she felt so comfortable with the team, and she was part of the team and was ready to compete.”
Now, heading into her second season, she feels she is in a better place, both mentally and physically. It all starts this weekend when the Rams take part in the Chick-fil-A Invitational in Fresno, Calif., a meet with a stacked lineup. She has goals for her first full season with Colorado State, and her performances will not be the only way she’ll help the team.
Even before she was ready to enter her name into a heat sheet at Air Force, Hager said she was making the team better. Having her in a lane for an entire training cycle will aid the cause.
“I’m so excited to have her all year. Just knowing we’ll have her for every dual meet, for Wyoming, to have her to train with in practice … Having her here the whole time is going to benefit everybody,” Hager said. “Not just in points but having a training partner. And her being so diverse of an athlete, maybe she’ll do a fly set with Kendra Preski and Hannah Sykes, maybe she’ll do a backstroke set with Liza Lunina, she’ll do a freestyle set with me, and she can push and challenge all of us. That’s amazing to have in a training partner.
“Emotionally and from a communication standpoint, she’s a strong person. She can stand up for herself and knows what she needs to be successful. It’s a beautiful demonstration of everything I want to be as an athlete, to be that resilient and that strong and be able to advocate that well for myself.”
As a swimmer, she’s ready for the next step. Personal records are great, and they never come at a bad time in a career. They add a spark to the training taking place and force the competitor to reevaluate the next step.
There will always be one. There will always be numbers, and they represent barriers to be taken down. There is so much power gained from one step to the next.
“I want to look at the clock and have it say 1:59. In swimming, you have certain benchmarks in certain races, so the first one you break is a minute in the 100 free,” Lucy said. “Then a minute in the 100 fly and 5 minutes in the 500 free. In the mile, when I was 16, I broke 17. When you get to that point, there’s only so many more benchmarks. The 200 fly and 200 back benchmarks, the 2 minutes, I feel like that’s my last benchmark and I want it so bad.”
At first, she needed to be home. She also wanted to stay near when it was time to take the next step away. Always in her mind, she was going to return to the pool, and she was going to attack her goals.
She just needed to find the right place.
“I don’t think there’s a better program for me. I don’t think there’s a better group of girls,” she said. “If I’m going to go best times, if I’m going to excel throughout my season, this is the place I’m going to do it.”
They all saw it coming. All anybody was waiting on was for Lucy to give the word.