Audrey Becker, left, with some of her Centre College teammates at the conference championships. (Centre College Swim Photo)
During the Southern Athletic Association championships last year, Audrey Becker admitted she tried to overthink way too many things — something Centre College swim coach Dean Brownley verified.
“She came to me and asked how to avoid that happening again. I gave her some mental cues to work on and she embraced it,” said Brownley. “She was a different swimmer at the conference championships this year. She acted like she was one of the best swimmers in the conference and that is what she is. She just had to realize how good she was.”
How good was Becker, a sophomore, at the SAA championships?
She won the 200-meter individual medley with a time of 2 minutes, 7.68 seconds. The next day in the 400 IM she finished second in 4:32.85. She came back the following day to win 200 butterfly in 2:07.41. She was also on three relay teams that all placed in the top three.
Becker admitted her “adrenaline was really flowing” in the 200 IM finals because she was the top qualifier, something she had not done before. She admits she was surprised at how well she performed but not shocked.
“I always knew there was a chance I could do well but I did not truly expect it until it happened. Those were goals I had been working toward but I did not know if they were super realistic or not,” Becker said.
Her coach was also hopeful she would do well after what she did as a freshman when she was overthinking her performance.
“She has grown up a lot this year. This is not mean to be derogatory, but there is a big difference between sophomore Audrey and freshman Audrey. It’s more mental than physical. She is so much more confident,” Brownley said.
The coach said his sophomore “did all the right things” in the offseason to succeed. She trained with her home club — Triton Swimming — in Louisville as soon as pools were allowed to reopen last summer. Becker called it “good luck” that Louisville had numerous pools and she had access to one.
“When everybody else went home for Thanksgiving and could not return until Jan. 4, she found access to a pool again and was very diligent with her workouts. If anybody deserved to swim well, it would be here. It’s not always the ones who do things right that everything works out for, so it was very gratifying to me as a coach to see the success she had knowing the work she put in,” Brownley said.
Becker said there was a “plan” for her to follow during her races and she basically stuck with her pre-race plan in each event.
“I definitely still need to get better at that because it’s harder than it sounds. I think taking a forced break during the pandemic made me happy just to get to swim at all. I focused on that and not putting pressure on myself,” the Centre sophomore said. “Last year I was happy with how I performed and it was good for a freshman. But I had pretty big goals for myself and not getting them kind of got in my head.”
Becker started swimming at about age 9 on a neighborhood team in Louisville and never stopped.
“My club team had a lot of people that were really fast. They were going to junior nationals, meets I could not qualify for. But they pushed me to be my best,” she said.
Both her parents attended Centre College and her mom was on the field hockey team. She grew up hearing about Centre and as soon as she toured campus she was sold on attending Centre.
“Centre has been academically challenging in a good way. If I had wanted an easy school academically, I would not be here,” Becker, a DuPont Manual High School graduate, said. “The only academically challenging schools are not in the Ivy League. Centre has pushed me a lot.”
She’s a math major who likes analytical subjects and developed a love for math late in her high school years.
“You could frame math as harder or easier than some majors. You don’t have to write papers like an English major and don’t have labs like pre-med majors do. So math definitely still has challenges but it’s not the hardest major. I enjoy it,” Becker said.
Challenges motivate her. The 400-meter individual medley is considered one of the most difficult events but that suits here.
“It’s the hardest of all the events I have swum but I would not do it if I if did not enjoy it,” Becker said. “I like swimming the more challenging events. That’s why the obstacles the pandemic presented did not overwhelm me. I was just happy to be there swimming. Meets were the most normal anybody felt all year I think. Even in virtual meets where we were basically competing against ourselves it really felt normal to be racing and helped forget the pandemic for a little bit.”
Becker has not thought about future goals at Centre but does wonder how much faster she can go once she resumes training after a short break.
“I know the competition will be faster next year when everybody has a full year of practice under their belts. I know I will have to get better, too, and that’s what I plan to do,” Becker said.
