By Pete Borello
Mtn. View grad up for NCAA honor after stellar swim season at Carleton
When Marie Marsman takes to the water to swim an individual event, she doesn’t worry about competing against those in the lanes around her.
Marsman is all about beating Marsman.
The Mountain View High graduate sees every race as another opportunity to shave time off her previous best.
“I set goals for myself and just work hard to do my best to reach the goals I’ve set,” Marsman said. “I’m a pretty competitive person and always have to do better in things. I’m more concerned with times than places; you can swim your best time and still finish last.”
Not that Marsman would know anything about finishing last. The sophomore at tiny Carleton College in Northfield, Minn., last month won three individual events at the NCAA Division III Swimming and Diving Championships.
She has since been named a finalist for the Honda Award, given to the top woman athlete in each NCAA Division. Marsman is one of 12 women - one per sport - nominated for the honor.
If Marsman had been asked to describe the Honda Award prior to her nomination, she might have guessed it went to the best Japanese import.
“I never heard of it before,” said Marsman, who grew up in Mountain View. “When my coach told me, I said, ‘What?’ Then when I found out what it was, I was like, ‘Wow!’ There are a lot of good swimmers in Division III, and I’m excited to be just a finalist.”
The division may be filled with talented swimmers, but none of them accomplished as much as Marsman did in 2002. She set three school records and four new standards for the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, which recently named her MIAC Female Athlete of the Year.
The coaches unanimously voted her Swimmer of the Meet at the NCAA finals, where she won the 50-meter freestyle (23.38 seconds), 100 free (50.39) and 200 free (1:50.63).
“In terms of what she’s achieved, she’s the best swimmer we’ve had here,” said Andy Clark, in his ninth year coaching a Carleton swim program established in 1973. “We’ve never had a swimmer win multiple individual titles at the national level. Her presence has enhanced the program and promoted the level of team competition, regionally and nationally. She’s a big reason we were a top-eight team at the national, which is the best we’ve ever done.”
Despite such accolades and all her achievements, Marsman’s ego appears inflation-proof.
She remains the antithesis of a self-promoter. During a half-hour interview, Marsman failed to mention she would be featured in Sports Illustrated’s “Faces in the Crowd” section this week and wasn’t too happy with Carleton’s sports information director for revealing this afterward.
“It’s embarrassing and I don’t like to talk about it all the time,” Marsman said of her success. “The best thing to me is doing it. It’s more of a team thing; I couldn’t do it without my teammates and coaches.”
Marsman also couldn’t do it without hard work and what Clark called “the ability to focus on the task at hand.” The 20-year-old is “a laid-back person” away from the pool, according to her coach, but she’s relentless inside of it.
“She’s a very dedicated person who truly enjoys the challenge of getting better,” Clark said. “She always wants to get faster and drop her times. She’s always finding ways to improve and looking for some new angle to get better.”
Marsman’s work ethic was just as apparent at Mountain View High, where as a senior she won a Central Coast Section championship in the 50 free.
Spartans coach Ben Murray said every year he tells his swimmers a Marsman story which has become “kind of a legend.” During a practice Murray challenged his swimmers to try the sprint rope - a piece of surgical tubing that attaches to the swimmer and to the block - which pulls them back as they try to swim to the other side of the pool. Since the device is used to help swimmers add speed, Marsman couldn’t wait to try it.
“Up this point, Marie could swim any workout I came up with and smile about it,” Murray said. “Well, she swam the sprint rope workout that day, but got out to (get sick) between the second and third sets of five. I was going to let her out of the last two sets, but she demanded to swim them. She didn’t smile too much that day, but she swam the whole workout.”
Marsman’s drive and experience - she started swim classes at age 3 and joined an aquatics club at 5 - have made her a master technician.
“She’s very technically sound,” Clark said. “She has great distance per stroke. Even when she’s tired, I’ve never seen her stroke get sloppy. A lot of swimmers lose their maximum distance per stroke when they’re tired. It’s really a strong point.”
Although Marsman’s college season has ended, she’s not done competing.
The international relations major also is a member of De Anza-Cupertino Aquatics, which swims through the summer. She competed with the club over spring break at the Senior Nationals in Minneapolis, nearly reaching her goal of qualifying for the 2004 Olympic Trials.
“I’m pretty close - I was six-tenths of a second off in the 100,” Marsman said. “I hope to do it this summer.”
She also wouldn’t mind claiming that Honda Award - the winner will be announced in June - though Marsman doesn’t seem consumed by it.
“It would be nice, but I haven’t really been thinking about it,” she said. “I’m too busy with school and swimming.”
She also finds time for intramural soccer and water polo - two other sports she excelled in during high school. Marsman, who said she’s “having a blast” at Carleton, is taking a kick-boxing class as well.
“I’m a pretty energetic person,” she said. “I like to stay active.”
