Every Tuesday and Thursday, the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams line up for workouts in their respective events. One swimmer, however, is absent from the group. Erica Smith, a junior from Largo, Fla., is busily working on her mathematics degree by attending class during the team’s traditional 5 p.m. practice time.

Smith, however, has her own self-coached workouts that she takes part around 8:30 a.m. everyday.

“She’s very dedicated,” coach Brooks Teal said. “She has a class conflict, so she has to work out on her own two days a week. It really takes somebody that’s really self-disciplined and focused to come in and do a great job in that type of situation.”

Smith admitted, however, that it’s never an easy task to complete the two-hour workout.

“It’s challenging at points,” Smith said. “When no one is around you and you’re just like, ‘Oh, I can cut this out and no one will know,’ but when it comes down to the season, you’re basically the one that sets the goals for yourself and sets the level you’re going to swim at.”

On Nov. 16, Smith set a personal best in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 56.18 seconds, just a tenth of a second behind the school record.

“The swim she had at Georgia Tech shows how much she’s embracing her swimming and how she’s learned to unleash her passion, her desire and her emotions to channel them positively,” Teal said.

Smith reminisced on the experience as being her best performance in her swimming career thus far.

“After I accomplished this, I just looked up at the wall, and when I saw my time, I got so excited,” Smith said. “I was in a relay, so three other teammates of mine were standing around the pool. When I finished, I looked at their faces, and they were so happy and so excited for me.”

One of the witnesses to the swim, sophomore teammate Patrice Dason, said it was awe-inspiring.

“I’ve never been so excited to watch a swim in my life,” Dason said. “After her 100 backstroke in the relay, everyone was freaking out. She dropped around two seconds, which is a really big deal in swimming.”

Smith said she never believed that she would reach this level in her career.

“I came in my freshman year wanting to swim, just wanting to be in the water,” Smith said. “I was thinking maybe I would swim in a few meets, but I ended up in all the meets. And I’ve just been improving from there.”