Parsons, competing for all the right reasons

CARBONDALE, ILL. – It all started at age five for freshman Samantha Parsons. She had older siblings that all swam, so, she decided to follow them into the pool. It wouldn't be for seven years until the sport became a passion of hers. From ages 12 to 17 she became more competitive in the pool on her club team in Montreal, Canada. This is where she would meet her coach that talked about the next level of competitive swimming.

"He coached at the University of Missouri for the club team," Samantha Parsons said. "He talked about the states all the time and it became a dream of mine instantly. In the two years before I came here, I improved myself so that I would be a prospect for division one schools."

When it came to what division one school that Parsons would attend, that was a different story. She knew that she wanted to swim in the states, but had no idea as to where.

"My best friend is on the team, Liane (Tatigian), and she's from Montreal, too," Parsons said. "She talked about SIU all the time and it wasn't a school on my radar at first because I had no idea what I was doing. I was just meeting with random schools. But, when I came to SIU and got on campus I knew that I wanted to come here."

Since coming to SIU, Parsons has broken two records in only five meets. She grabbed her first record at the Missouri State Invite on October 8, in the 200-yard breaststroke. Her time of 2:15.61 beat the eight-year-old record held by Julie Ju by .17 seconds. This record only stood for three meets until she beat it again, with a time of 2:15.46 at the Louisville Invite. At the same meet Parsons swam to a time of 2:02.68 in the 200-yard IM, which was .64 seconds better than the SIU record.

"It's awesome. But what's great about college swimming is I'm not swimming for myself anymore and that's my favorite part about swimming on this team," Parsons said. "I'm not swimming to break records. I'm not swimming to come in first. I'm not swimming to best other people's times. I'm swimming to represent the name on my cap the best I can. It's so great to know that if I have a good race or a bad race I'm going to have 60 people behind me no matter what. So, yeah, it's awesome to break school records and it's an honor get recognized for them. But, the biggest honor is to be called a Saluki and be apart of this team."

The freshman has finished inside the top-ten 13 times this season in individual events. Of those 13, nine were inside the top-five, and of those nine six were inside the top-three. The only time Parsons was unable to crack the top-ten was at the University of Kentucky's quad meet, where she finished 11^th in the 200-yard IM. If you're doing the math at home she's almost a lock to give you a fifth place finish or better. So, how can you be this successful this early in her career? Her secret formula is pretty simple.

"I'm just trying to have fun," Parsons said. "I used to be very time oriented and winning oriented. Ever since I started viewing swimming as more of a game, the sport got 100 times better. And yes, I swim for the team, but in the back of my mind I also swim for myself and I want to become the best athlete that I can possibly be. So, everyday I get into the water and I just want to be better than I was yesterday."

This Saturday marks the first time SIU will compete against Missouri State in Carbondale since their conference championship win over the Bears back in February. The Salukis edged out their rivals by only .5 points to win the title. When SIU faced MSU at the inaugural Missouri State Invite in October, the Salukis finished two places behind the Bears. It was the first time Parsons got to compete against SIU's rival and she showed up ready. At the invite she finished inside the top-five in three events, two of them being second place finishes.

"I'm really excited for Saturday," Parsons said. "Honestly, when I looked at the schedule this was the meet that I was looking forward to. I heard that they were our main competitors and I heard that it's good vibe on deck because everyone is so competitive. I'm just excited to show them what I have and to show them if they do win conference it's not going to be won easily. I want to put my name up on the board and I want to help my team win. It's going to be fun."

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