WHY I PLAY
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I’m a sprinter. No room for mistakes. In the water, everything is quiet. It’s just you, and you’re staring down at the line, and you think, Go, go, go!” —Catie Lovett ’25
Tri Athlete Well, no, Catie Lovett ’25 is not a triathlete in the true sense of the word.“I can’t bike for the life of me,” she says. But she does compete in three sports: cross country in fall, swimming in winter, and track in spring. Lovett has been swimming competitively since she was five. In middle school she ran track—the 800 and 1600—“just to keep in shape.” Then in her junior year of high school, a friend convinced her to join cross country. “ ‘You’re more of a distance person,’ she said, so I came to the dark side. I never imagined running long distance.” Her favorite? “Hands down, it’s swimming.” But swimming wasn’t the reason Lovett looked at Moravian.“Coach Jesse Baumann [director of men’s and women’s track & field and cross country] sent me a hand-written note inviting me to campus to meet with him and the cross country team. During my visit, he mentioned that Moravian was starting a swimming program, and that really sparked my interest. I thought it would be awesome to be the first girl to commit, to start something here, and watch it grow.” Now in her third year, Lovett is still excited about the swimming program.“We have very good swimmers, but as a team, we don’t yet have the size.” She’s still competing in track and cross country while she works toward her nursing degree (she has a 3.92 GPA). And swimming is still her number-one sport. “Right before you get up on the blocks, it is so loud. Everybody is cheering. It’s a feeling you can’t describe. They blow the whistle, and everybody stops. The whole place goes quiet. You step up. You take your mark. And the second you hit the water, it’s all game. I’m a sprinter. No room for mistakes. In the water, everything is quiet. It’s just you, and you’re staring down at the line, and you think, Go, go, go!” —Claire Kowalchik ’P22
PHOTO BY CARLO ACERRA
FALL 2023
MORAVIAN UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE
9
