First it was Amy Baly, then it was Rachael Burke, and now, Kimi Kelly.
The Virginia women's swimming team has maintained their elite distance program with top recruits each offseason, and this year has been no different.
Kelly, a freshman from Mount Vernon, N.Y., has been nothing short of amazing as she follows in the wake of her older peers, senior captain Amy Baly and sophomore Rachael Burke, last year's ACC Rookie of the Year.
Kelly, who swims the 500- and 1,000-yard freestyle and the 200-yard butterfly, has the opportunity to place at all three events at the conference tournament this week in Charlottesville.
"We believe that Kimi Kelly should be in the mix for a win," Virginia coach Mark Bernardino said. "I believe the toughest opponents she has are her teammates and the young ladies she races every day in practice. There are some very fine distance programs at other schools in the conference too, but I don't think any of them have the advantage of training day in and day out with the high quality of and high number of distance people that Kimi does."
The benefits of working with top distance swimmers like Baly, Burke and freshman Rory Schmidt are not the only reasons Kelly has done exceedingly well this year. Her competitive drive and work ethic are traits that separate her from the rest of the pack.
"I think her greatest strength is her unbelievable competitive nature," Bernardino said. "I've always believed the two hallmarks of all the great athletes I've ever seen or that I've ever coached is that they love to win, or they hate to lose. And Kimi Kelly hates to lose. And I think that's what separates the really good athletes from the really great athletes."
But despite her loathing of defeat, Kelly still maintains the right attitude.
"She works harder than anyone I've ever seen," Burke said. "She never gets tired. She gets in there and just goes nonstop so it's awesome. And she's not psycho about it. She comes in and she still has fun. She still laughs, she still smiles, which is a great thing to have."
And there has been a lot to smile about. Kelly won three of Virginia's four event victories in the regular season finale at Maryland over a week ago, has already qualified for the NCAA championships and has been named ACC Swimmer of the Week twice this season. She won the first award after posting near pool record times in a pair of dual meets versus two-time NCAA defending champion Auburn and Penn State Oct. 27. She earned her second award after winning five of her six events the following weekend in meets at Clemson and South Carolina.
Kelly described the Auburn and Penn State meet as "my most rewarding of the season because I got two of my best times in the 500 and the 1000, and it was just a good meet because I got to swim against some of the fastest girls in the country and learn how they swim."
The goals that the coaches have laid out for Kelly for the rest of this season and beyond are not easy ones, but she has the tools to accomplish them.
"If we can allow her to mature as an athlete, mature as a person and see improvement in some of the finer details of the sport, there's no questioning her heart, there's no questioning her desire, there's no questioning her work ethic in the water," Bernardino said. "So if we can combine both those elements together over the course of four years, I'd love to see Kimi get to the point where she could challenge for an individual NCAA swimming championship."
With Kelly's natural abilities, competitive drive and top-quality support group, those lofty goals aren't as unattainable as they may seem.
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