Trio of Swimmers Test Waters In December, Rhode Island swimmers Colette Aubin, Emily Thomesen and Chaya Zabludoff, all juniors, competed at the USA Swimming 2013 AT&T Winter National Championship, held on the campus of the University of Tennessee. “With this being our first time at a meet of this caliber, I think we performed as well as we could’ve imagined,” assistant coach Anthony Randall said. “To have swims near Chaya Zabludoff lifetime bests puts us in a good position for a successful A-10 Championship meet.” Zabludoff swam the 200-yard freestyle in a time of 1:49.63, less than one second off the URI school record. She also competed in the 500-yard freestyle, finishing in a time of 4:53.79, narrowly missing the finals and placing 26th overall. Aubin competed in the 100-yard butterfly and finished in a time of 55.87, just missing her own school record by .03 seconds. Thomesen swam in the 100-yard backstroke and the 200-yard backstroke.
It’s How You Play the Game Junior women’s tennis player driving a car. We want to be the drivers, Nithila Asokaraj and senior not the passengers.” golfer Andrew Fiorenzano Student-athlete attendees from represented URI at the NCAA Division I, II and III programs were grouped Student-Athlete Leadership into different teams with 35 to 40 of their Forum in Providence peers. Within these teams, representatives November 7-10. from NCAA member schools led The annual event hosted discussions designed to help participants more than 350 student-athletes become more effective leaders and who were identified as leaders motivators. Among the various topics on their campuses, as well as discussed were behavioral styles, 125 athletics professionals from decision-making, emotional intelligence, the Northeast. The Leadership and values. Forum is one of the largest “We also had important discussions non-competitive gatherings about our leadership styles, our personal of NCAA student-athletes brand, and the way we represent ourselves representing their colleges and via social media,” explained Asokaraj, a universities. It is designed to native of Marlborough, Mass. “It was an give student-athletes a forum awesome experience. I learned a lot—not where they can discuss key only about myself, but about different issues collectively, as well as leadership tools and ways to motivate and an opportunity to enhance empower others.” the personal awareness and Speakers included Chris Herren, a leadership skills they’ll need former NBA player and drug and alcohol Andrew Fiorenzano and Nithila Asokaraj to develop their skills at the addict in recovery, who spoke about campus and conference levels, decision making; and Rayna DuBose, and beyond the collegiate realm. a former Division I basketball student-athlete and quad amputee, “From the beginning, there was a strong emphasis on living who spoke about facing adversity. each day to the fullest, and seizing opportunity in the moment,” The weekend also featured a service component as the entire said Fiorenzano, a Cranston native. “Our facilitators likened dayathletic community worked together to make blankets and teddy to-day life, life amongst teammates, and future professional life to bears for Providence’s St. Mary’s Home for Children. PHOTOS: COURTESY URI ATHLETICS
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