Rylan Howe

Senior swimmer Becca Zarazan comes up for air during the 200 yard butterfly. Zarazan took first place in the event earning nine points and helping Kansas to a 196-99 victory against Iowa State Saturday afternoon. Zarazan was one of six seniors honored prior to their final home dual meet.

Lia Pogioli, a Peoria, Ill., sophomore, exemplifies how tough it is to be student athlete.

When Pogioli came to the University of Kansas last year, she not only had to adjust to being away from her family, but to a more intense training regimen than she was use to.

The sophomore swimmer with the KU swimming and diving team said her high school highs and lows and training from a Purdue University swimming coach helped her compete at the university level.

Pogioli attended Woodruff High School and was an outstanding swimmer under coach Tricia McDaniel.

During her career at Woodruff, Pogioli broke eight varsity records, was an eight-time state qualifier, gained All-American status in the 500 freestyle and was also a four-time letter-winner in swimming.

Rylan Howe

Lia Pogioli is a sophomore from Peoria, Ill., where she broke eight varsity records at Woodruff High School. Pogioli specializes in long-distance.

To top off her list of high school accomplishments, Pogioli captured the Peoria Area Swimmer of the Year Award two times. A local Peoria newspaper, The Journal Star, named Pogioli the Athlete of the Year in both 2001 and 2002.

She was struck with mononucleosis her sophomore year of high school, and her dedication for the sport waned her junior year. After her junior season, however, Pogioli’s passion for swimming returned. She put in double time during the summer in order to have a great senior season.

Following the Illinois state meet her senior year, Pogioli expressed to the Journal Star that she felt good about her senior year.

Despite the hard work that she put in the summer before her senior year of high school, she still had major changes to make in order to train to the best of her ability with the Jayhawks.

Among the adversity of coming to college, Pogioli also struggled with getting used to the Kansas swimming program.

Defining the problem and taking steps to prevail through the problem took almost her entire freshman year.

“I was having a hard time,” Pogioli said. “First semester was tough anyways, plus high school and USS swimming were not as intense as college swimming.”

She felt as though she wasn’t in shape, she said, and things snowballed from there. Not only did she feel slow, but the proof was on the clock after every race.

“I was really depressed because I was swimming slower,” Pogioli said. “It was such a big change, and I had to adapt to the training. I got really discouraged, and I felt like I couldn’t do anything.”

She said she realized after her freshman season that she needed to take some steps to have a successful sophomore campaign.

For that support, Lia Pogioli turned to her older brother, Giordan, a junior swimmer at Purdue.

She joined her brother and maintained a tough training regimen with Purdue coach Dan Ross throughout last spring and all summer.

“Purdue’s program and training is a lot like Kansas,” Lia Pogioli said.

She said she saw the results when the 2004-05 season kicked off in October.

She wasn’t the only one who noticed the results. Coach Clark Campbell also saw Pogioli’s improvements.

“The past summer of training at Purdue with coach Dan Ross instilled in Lia that she is a very good distance swimmer,” Campbell said. “Lia is simply more confident in herself.”

Even now, practices seem easier, Pogioli said.

“I’ll say to a teammate, ‘wow, that practice was easy,’ and they’ll say, ‘no Lia, you’re just in better shape,’” she said.

With a little boost of confidence and a head start on training, Pogioli has been a key asset to the Jayhawk swim team. She specializes in distance freestyle and has had some outstanding performances this year.

“The forward momentum has really helped me,” Pogioli said.

She recently recorded her season-best time in the 1,000-yard freestyle against the Arkansas Razorbacks on January 29. She clocked in with at time of 10:27.87.

Although the 1,000-yard free isn’t a race at the Big 12 Conference swimming Championships, Pogioli will be stepping up and swimming the mile. The mile is 66 laps, opposed to the 40 that Pogioli is used to.

With her newfound confidence and hard work ethic, the future looks bright for Pogioli, Campbell said.

“She is definitely maximizing her potential each and every day,” Campbell said.

Pogioli, Campbell and the Jayhawks will take their momentum to College Station, Texas, for the Big 12 Conference Championships in two weeks.