Last year, Idaho freshman Rachel Millet was swimming for her club team, the Spokane Waves, as a senior at Ferris High School in Spokane. This year, she is one of the top swimmers on Idaho’s swimming and diving team.
“For me, (the transition between club and college) was really easy,” Millet said. “It was pretty smooth. Spokane is where my family is right now so I’m not really homesick because they aren’t that far away.”
Millet started club swimming while living in Hawaii and started team swimming when she was 7 years old.
“My club swimming routine was pretty rigorous too so (the transition) was pretty easy.”
Millet was awarded WAC Swimmer of the Week for the second time this season after winning three individual events at New Mexico State last week. In addition to winning the 50, 100 and 200 freestyle races, Millet was a member of the winning 400 free relay with Megan Venlos, Erica Anderson and Si Jia Pang.
As a freshman, Millet has already set school records in the 50 free (23.47 seconds), 100 free (50.68), 200 free (1:50.95) and 100 fly (56.20). She is also a member of the record-setting 400 medley and 800 freestyle teams.
Millet said the records are a good accomplishment, but her goal is to make the NCAA tournament.
“My goal, for the next four years, is to make the NCAAs,” Millet said. “Whether that will happen this year or not, we’ll have to see how the WAC (tournament) goes.”
Millet’s college career so far has been successful, but she said she hasn’t always had this much success.
“I struggled the past two years in high school so I guess you could say I lost a lot of races,” Millet said. “So coming into college, I learned that winning is easier than losing. That’s kind of been my mantra. Just being part of a team really gets me going and just swimming not only for myself but for something bigger.”