Kerrie Kolackovsky: Leaving Her Mark
2/19/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Swimming and Diving
Feb. 19, 2014
Putting more in, hoping the end product shows less - this seems like a counterintuitive concept when taken at face value. In this particular case however, the currency is time and it is a process that swimmers know all too well.
Only through unrelenting dedication and rigorous training are goals attained and at one point or another, most every competitor who takes the block aims to be a champion. Through a nonstop precession of 6 a.m. practices and a year-long training regimen, it is such aspirations that have fueled Seton Hall senior Kerrie Kolackovsky.
Part of a family where swimming had become ingrained in the day-to-day routine, the Franklin Square, N.Y. native became enamored with the sport at a young age. While many children participate in organized swimming, just as it had for her sisters before her, the pool became magnetic for Kolackovsky. With that attraction, coupled with an obvious talent, a slew of accolades followed.
She earned six varsity letters for H. Frank Carey High School and early in her prep career, began to assert herself on a national stage. As one of the top-three ranked 100-breaststroke swimmers in the country, Kolackovsky earned an invitation from the United States National Select Team to ply her trade at the U.S. Olympic Training Center.
The list of awards she collected throughout the rest of her career with the Seahawks reads as something of an embarrassment of riches. A dominant force who reigned near the top of New York State for an extended period of time, among other honors, she graduated as a three-time All-American, five-time All-State selection and the owner of Nassau County records in the 100-breast and 400-IM.
When it came time to make a college choice, she landed on Seton Hall where her sister, Jessica, now the head women's swimming coach at John Jay College, had swam and been a team captain and MVP. Since committing to head coach Ron Farina and The Hall, what has ensued has been one of the most distinguished careers in program history, characterized by an unrivaled level consistency and versatility.
Throughout her time in South Orange, Kolackovsky has established a standard of excellence that dates back to her first collegiate meet. In her inaugural competition for the Pirates, she broke through with three victories against Rider, setting the tone for years to come. It took her all of two meets to put her name on the record board as while posting another trio of wins at Loyola (MD); she broke the 100-breaststroke school record for the first of what would be five times that season. In all, she totaled an impressive 21 first-place finishes and would complete the campaign with her name alongside five school records overall while getting her first taste of the BIG EAST Championship.
That season, Kolackovsky was a teammate of 2011 graduate Kevin Webster who took home the Most Outstanding Male Swimmer award from his final conference meet after collecting two event victories. Getting a front row look at what Webster was able to accomplish was an experience she credits with helping her elevate her own performance to the next level, something they both explored in the attached video.
Even with adding distance events to her program, Kolackovsky picked up right where she left off the following year. She added school record marks in the 100, 200, and 1,650-yard freestyles while also helping to set new standards in the 200 and 400-medley relays. Her season also featured trips to the USA Swimming Winter Nationals and LCM Invitational for Olympic trials, trips that were sandwiched around another standout season in which she registered 13 wins and surpassed conference qualifying standards in six different events. The Hall placed 10th as a team at the 2012 BIG EAST Championships but Kolackovsky was the team's top individual performer and contributed to two record-setting relay efforts on the conference's biggest stage, providing a springboard that powered her into what turned out to be a junior season littered with superlatives.
She added another 18 victories to her collection a season ago, emerging as the team's top scorer for the third-straight season. Kolackovsky continued to excel no matter where Farina chose to pencil her in, qualifying for the BIG EAST Championship in nine separate events. Over the course of the season, she repeatedly re-wrote the record book, turning in new lows in four different disciplines. She proceeded to increase the number of individual records in her possession to six with her most productive showing at the conference meet to date, swimming as part of more history making relay squads and earning a second swim in the 200-IM as well.
Prior to her senior campaign, the conference landscape shifted and Kolackovsky was quick to put her stamp on the early portions of the new-look league's history. She took home two of the four BIG EAST Swimmer of the Week awards handed out this season and in addition to lifting her career win total over 70, reset her own 100-freestyle school record yet again.
Entering this weekend, she holds six individual school records (100-free, 200-free, 1,650-free, 100-breast, 200-breast, 200-IM) and is part of four record holding relay teams. Kolackovsky is also seeded first in three of the events in which she has been entered, after posting conference leading times in the 200-IM and both breaststrokes.
She has accomplished all of this while balancing the responsibilities associated with a program that stresses academic excellence, earning the honor of BIG EAST Academic All-Star and contributing to three-straight College Swimming Coaches Association of American (CSCAA) Team Scholar All-America awards in the process.
Kolackovsky is not one to rest on her laurels however, and is only looking forward to the upcoming conference championship. With the ultimate task still at hand, marveling at and analyzing her achievements is something she leaves to other people. It is this ubiquitous humility and focus that Farina and her sister Jessica believe sets her apart. A pair of veteran instructors, each professed that any squad would be well-served to have just a few swimmers who shared her sense of dedication to her craft.
What is unique about Kolackovsky though, is that even in brief conversation, it is profoundly evident that her dedication comes from a sense of obligation to her team and the people she credits with supporting her throughout her career. She will admit she is competitive by nature - something that is true of any successful athlete - but is quick to deflect or downplay any individual compliment. She instead chooses to illuminate the role that her family - in particular her parents - and her friends and teammates have played in making her experience with swimming such a rewarding one.
Perhaps it is appropriate then, that with Kolackovsky on the cusp of capping her time at Seton Hall with what would be her crowning achievement, the conference meet has been relocated to a site in close proximity to where it all started. The GCIT pool in Sewell, N.J. is sure to feature a devoted cheering section and will serve as the place where they can all share in the moment as Kolackovsky chases a title that has eluded the Pirates since SHU Athletics Hall of Famer Jen Heider captured the last off her four swimming championships two decades ago.
While a conference title has been the ultimate goal, whether she wins one, or more, or happens to come up short, in no way will her career and contributions to the program be defined by what takes place this weekend.
Her legacy as one of the greatest competitors to hit the water for the Pirates is already cemented. This is said with a full understanding that use of hyperbole can often have the opposite of the intended effect, that an earnest effort to highlight the significance of a set of accomplishments may instead cheapen their value if the wrong words are employed.
So to put it simply, Kerrie Kolackovsky is, by any measure, one of the finest swimmers ever to represent Seton Hall and after a lifetime of hours spent building towards this moment - her time has arrived.
