For the first time since joining the Western Athletic Conference (WAC), a Seattle University men’s swimmer has won gold at the WAC Swim and Diving Championships. Danielis Kvederis, a sophomore on the Seattle University men’s swim team, brought home gold in the 200-yard backstroke event March 1, with a time of 1:43.53, also breaking the Seattle U record for this event. 

Kvederis was born and raised in Klaipeda, Lithuania, beginning his swimming career at the age of eight. In his time at Seattle U, Kvederis has set multiple individual school records, four of which occurred during the WAC Championships this year. Kvederis also made it on the podium for the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 46.88. 

The following is an excerpt from a March 7 interview. Initials indicate the speaker.  

DD: Why Seattle U?  

DK: I came here to Seattle to study and swim. It was just one of the few opportunities that I got at the time when I was looking for a school to study at back in Lithuania. Yeah, so this place caught my eye because it is kind of, I would say, a small school compared to other schools. Especially our coach Joe Dykstra, he’s been training us for a while now, for two years now, and I think his program is really good and I liked it a lot.  

DD: How was it coming to the United States from Lithuania?  

DK: Yeah, so it’s been kind of hard and awkward at first… As a freshman from the start of the year, my roommate was Hawkins Wendt, and he was the one who kind of introduced me to American culture. He showed me what’s going around. He helped me with school, showed me a lot of places here in Seattle, and I think he was the one who actually helped me to understand more about Seattle U and American culture.  

DD: What do you do during the day of, or day before a meet? Do you have any pre-meet rituals?  

DK: I use the technique of visualizing myself swimming before races. I tend to do it two or three weeks before my race, so I imagine myself swimming. The night before I tend to not think about it at all. Whenever I come up to the start, I’m ready for it. My ritual before the starts specifically, I like to grab a little bit of water and splash around my chest and on my face. Then I do a “dolphin burst” out of my mouth with the water or something like that. So this is one of my rituals that I do and I think that actually helps me to just swim faster.  

DD: What was going through your head during the 200-backstroke in the WAC Championship? 

DK: I wasn’t pressuring myself too much. I just kind of knew that I’m gonna win at that point because I was feeling myself, I was visualizing that before, and my mindset was kind of chill. I walked to the blocks, I see my team shouting, screaming my name, I kind of push my chest a little bit. I was so excited to swim… After the swimming, it was so amazing to just come out of the water and see my teammates happy and smiling because Seattle U just got a medal in the 200-backstroke.  

DD: When you realized you had won, what were you thinking at that point?  

DK: I was kind of shocked, not gonna lie. I just smacked the water, I was so happy, and I saw my teammates’ faces. It was just an amazing time. I loved it, I wish I can get into that place again and just repeat that scene.  

DD: What does the offseason look like for you?  

DK: In the summer I don’t swim a lot, I’m not gonna lie, so the main season when I swim is fall, winter, and spring. It’s the offseason for college swimming, but as an international swimmer I’m still going to swim for the Lithuanian team and I’m going to go back to Lithuania. So I’m still keeping my workout. I’m still pressuring myself, still weightlifting, swimming a lot, still doing around 5k per day, something around that.  

DD: What’re you looking forward to in the future?  

DK: I mean breaking the record again, that would be nice. I feel like I can do it, so I don’t even set this as a goal, I just know that I’m gonna do it.  

Kvederis has already made a major impact on the team in just two years with the program, setting multiple school records and bringing home medals for Seattle U. Kvederis’s times in the 200 and 100-yard backstroke events qualified him for the CSCAA National Invitational Championships in Ocala, Fla. He will head over March 13.