Cothern Earns SEC Swimmer of the Week Honors for Stellar Performance Against Stanford
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Bella Cothern was tabbed as the SEC Women’s Co-Swimmer of the week for her pair of wins in the 50 and 100 Freestyle and aiding her relay team to second-place finishes in the 200 Medley Relay and the 400 Freestyle Relay while posting blazing fast splits in both relays.
Cothern’s finishes in the 50 and 100 Freestyle were both good for NCAA B-Cut times with her 50 Freestyle time being a personal best and the seventh-fastest time nationwide. “It feels great, and I shocked myself,” said Cothern of the award, “I did something, that three years ago, I never thought I’d do.”Cothern credits her preparation for the meet and her mental approach for her success at Stanford.
Razorback great and Olympic Gold Medalist Anna Hopkin spoke to the team in the weeks leading up to the meet, offering words of encouragement as well as describing her approach to big races. “Anna was asked about how she dealt with pre-meet jitters, and she said that she trained hard and knew as soon as the race began that she had put in every last bit of effort that she could,” said Cothern of Hopkin’s talk. Bella took the advice Hopkin. Offered and ran with it: “I worked harder than ever leading up to this meet, and I knew that I did all I could possibly do to prepare for it,” she said.
Cothern stated that she “felt smooth getting into the water for practice on Thursday and was very excited for the meet.” From her first race, the 200 Medley Relay, she knew she was going to have a solid showing. “I tied my fastest split in the 200 Medley Relay and took a lot of confidence from that moving into the 50 and 100 Free,” Cothern commented. She felt that the Stanford meet was a good confidence boost for the team, “showing that we can compete in these bigger dual meets.” When asked what her success means for the team, Cothern said, “This is the most motivated team we’ve had and it is something that we worked very hard to build… everyone is bought in and wants to be the best.”
The Razorbacks will be back in action on Saturday, November 4th as they travel to Springfield Mo. to take on the Missouri State University Bears at the Hammons Center Pool at 11:00 AM CST.
More Information
Visit ArkansasRazorbacks.com for the latest information on all things Arkansas Swim and Dive. You can also find the Razorbacks on social media by liking us on Facebook (Arkansas Razorback Swimming and Diving) and following us on Twitter (@RazorbackSD) and Instagram (@RazorbackSwimDive).