Greta Leberfinger in the pool at the Werblin Recreation Center.

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Greta Leberfinger at the pool at the Werblin Recreation Center.

Photography: 
Nick Romanenko

She is up before the sun and into the frigid waters of the Werblin Recreation Center pool on the Busch Campus by 6:30, a bracing wake-up call for a day that won’t be ending for another 18 hours. As senior Greta Leberfinger churns through the water with the rest of the Scarlet Knights women’s swimming and diving team, part of a two-hour practice that ushers in a week full of them, she wonders how in the world she will find enough hours in the day to get through all her school work while she now tries to whittle precious tenths of seconds off her times in the 100- and 200-meter breaststroke events.

These concerns roll off her back as easily as the water flowing around her powerful swimmer’s body. They have to. She has papers to work on next and then some reading to catch up on before she adjourns with the team for a grueling weight-training session at 1 p.m. at the Hale Center next to High Point Solutions Stadium on the Busch Campus. Then it’s back into the pool at 2 p.m. for more practice, this one tougher than the first. As a co-captain of the team, Leberfinger also takes it upon herself to keep team morale up and the lines of communication open between the team and head coach Phil Spiniello. Team success is just as important to her as her personal achievements. “My teammates and I understand one another, and we share the pain we go through on a daily basis,” she says. “They know that if we make those ‘intervals’ or we get those extra pull-ups or we max out on squats, we will be rewarded with good times and strong finishes during competitions.”

After leaving Werblin at 4:45 p.m., Leberfinger has close to four hours of classes in front of her, beginning at 5:30 p.m. on the Cook/Douglass Campus at Rutgers University– New Brunswick. Fighting off the  overwhelming desire to sleep, she grabs a sandwich and a cup of coffee beforehand in the Douglass Student Center, one of several small meals she eats during the day (she’s particularly fond of peanut butter-and-jelly sandwiches). Because of the caloric expenditure from the three workouts, however, she is ravenous within 20 minutes of sitting down for her lecture in the course “Adolescent Development,” and before long she is fantasizing about eating a grilled chicken Caesar salad. When classes are finally over at 9 p.m., Leberfinger heads back to her apartment off of College Avenue, where she must read for another two hours, struggling mightily  to keep her eyes open. When the clock strikes midnight, she’s had it, and the lights go out. It’s only Monday.

After three years of swimming for Rutgers and setting school records, Leberfinger can cast a gaze at an up­coming week and know where the trouble spots lie, when her mind and body will be run through the wringer. And that doesn’t even include the nerve-wracking anticipation of the weekly swim meets. But Leberfinger is so busy—she also babysits and volunteers for the Embrace Kids Foundation—that she doesn’t have time to agonize over the obstacle course in front of her. She just does it. And if the arduous workload is the price of success, Leberfinger is all in. “Over the years,” she says, “I have learned what has to be sacrificed in order to maintain a good GPA, be actively involved in my community, and succeed in the pool.”

Greta Leberfinger in the pool at the Werblin Recreation Center.

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As a high-achieving student-athlete, Greta Leberfinger is always on the move. By 6:30 a.m., she is in the pool at the Werblin Recreation Center, one of two daily workouts with the women’s swimming and diving team, tending to her two signature events, the 100- and 200-meter breaststroke, which have garnered her an invitation to try out for the 2016 U.S. women’s Olympic swimming team. Between practices, she grabs a bite to eat on the fly and attends classes, some lasting well into the evening.

Photography: 
Nick Romanenko

The twin demands of academics and sports, daunting as they are, actually reinforce each other, Leberfinger says: being conscientious in one realm lends to her discipline in the other. Leberfinger, a psychology student (3.8 GPA in her major) who is minoring in education, learned early on how to manage her time—all year long. Unlike most other collegiate sports, the swim team practices year round. It’s a pace that would fell many an athlete, but that’s OK with her. “There is so much satisfaction I get from the effort I put in,” she says. “Sometimes, after a really hard practice, I feel unstoppable. I surprise myself with some of the sets I push through. It is the greatest high I will ever experience. I feel like I can conquer the world.”

Leberfinger will have her chance to do just that when she tries out for the 2016 U.S. Olympic swimming team. Following her graduation this spring from the School of Arts and Sciences, she will begin her arduous preparation for the audition in Omaha, Nebraska, but the training won’t be done in the dark. In 2012, she was invited to the same Olympic Trials because of her excellent qualifying times, and it was an eye-opening experience that showed her what it takes to be good—really good. “Now I am ready to go back, and it has completely changed my dedication,” says Leberfinger, who sees graduate school in her future, too. “I don’t know how I would get through practices without knowing, and constantly reminding myself, that I am going to the Olympic trials. It’s a huge accomplishment and gives me much more motivation to push through the hard practices and keep my intensity up.”

Leberfinger got serious about  competitive swimming relatively late, during high school, when she swam for Chatham High School and it was clear that she was a talent. A high school tennis star, too, Leberfinger considers her late arrival to swimming a blessing because many swimmers who have been competing since they were children can peak, or burn out, during college. Not Leberfinger: “I have to love what I do because it’s a huge commitment,” she says. “My  parents always told me to swim because I want to, not because they want me to. They always said it was my decision.”

So doubling down on a chance to make the U.S. women’s Olympic team seems to be the right choice. Clearly, her times have arrived.