NORFOLK, VA (WTKR)- As the Old Dominion swim teams prepare for next week's conference championship meets, two Monarchs who are taking the pool are continuing family traditions of hitting the water for the silver and blue.
ODU sophomore Zach Redding and senior Kiersten Donnelly are the latest members of their respective families suiting up for the Monarchs. Redding's mother swam for the program and Donnelly was teammates with her sister last year in Norfolk.
"My sister and I are really close," said Donnelly, who transferred to Old Dominion last year. "I actually went to boarding school so we didn't go to high school together, so being back here at ODU was kind of the first time we've been to school together in awhile, so that was really fun."
"She told me a lot about the university before I came here and how much fun she had," Redding said of his mother. "I was looking forward to making my own path here."
Swimming is a sport that takes passion and hard work to succeed at the college level. Both Redding and Donnelly have family members who understand the rigors of the sport and both say it's nice to share that common bond with somebody who's close to them.
"We're super close, me and my mom," Redding noted. "I call her almost every day just to check on her, talk to her, tell her how my day is going. Just to be able to relate on the swimming level, it's super cool just because I can talk to her about swimming and she knows what I'm talking about so it's easy."
"It's really nice just to have somebody who's been through it," added Donnelly. "They really understand the pressure and the expectations and things like that. She really is a safe space for me and a really great support system, so I appreciate her."
Now both student-athletes are looking to guide their respective teams to big things during this year's conference meets. The Monarch men head to Knoxville for the Atlantic Sun championships next week, while the women compete for a Sun Belt crown in Orlando.
"There's just a different atmosphere, a different environment," head coach Jess Livsey said of championship week. "Everybody gets really psyched for it."
"We've been training for this meet all year," pointed out Redding. "This is kind of the final hurrah and we're just going to go out there and have a lot of fun. We've been preparing for this all season so I'm ready to go."
"There's definitely a little more excitement about conferences, just because it's the last one," Donnelly added.
