By Kali Westerberg
UWRF Sports Information

Excitement has been building up over the past couple of weeks for the University of Wisconsin-River Falls swimming & diving team, and Ashley Crunstedt is probably one of the most excited. She is graduating in May of 2006 with a degree in broadcast journalism and a minor in international studies.

Crunstedt has been swimming since she was very young. " My younger sister, Kelsey, and I would be in the water all day, everyday! We went to swimming lessons a few times, but pretty much self taught ourselves." When her family moved to Savage, Minn., she tried out for the Burnsville Swim Club. She skipped the "novice" level, where swimmers learned the different strokes, and went directly to the "bronze" team. This was a big deal for Crunstedt because she had not had any formal training at that point in her career.  

Every swimmer has favorite events, but one event that most of them dread is the butterfly.   However, this event is Crunstedt's favorite, " because no one else wants to swim it. I feel like it's my event - you get a lot of respect in the swimming world for doing it. I know I'd never believe myself back in high school when I say this, but as of last season, I am a 200 yard butterflyer."   She also competes in the 200-yard backstroke, 500-yard freestyle, and the 100-yard butterfly.  

Crunstedt does not plan on continuing competitive swimming after she graduates, but she would not trade her years in the pool for anything. "Swimming, more so than anything else, has shown me how to set goals, and what steps I need to take to achieve them. It has taught me to push myself day in and day out in all aspects of life. It's taught me time management in a big way."

Growing up Crunstedt not only swam, but also danced competitively for 11 years and played softball for seven.   Once she got to Burnsville High School, however, she had to decide which sport she wanted to continue with and play varsity. Her choice? Swimming. Today, she is active in other ways as well. " I ski every so often, and my roommate just taught me how to ice skate last year."

When asked about her plans for the future, Crunstedt said, "I'm one of those people who still don't know what they want to be when they grow up." She spent spring semester of 2005 traveling around Europe with the International Traveling Classroom, and would love to return there. If that doesn't work out, she plans on getting an internship at a local television station to see if behind the scenes broadcasting is still what she wants to do.

Crunstedt is looking forward to the rest of the season this year. "It's early in the season," she said, "so my times are a little off, but I know with the training I've been putting in that the end of the season conference meet is going to pay off! I'm really pumped for a good finish to my competitive swimming career!"

Two of Crunstedt's most memorable swimming moments came at UW-RF and in high school. "I know I had really great end of the season section meet when I was a junior in high school. I had a huge drop in my 100 back time and finished seventh in the section. Another big moment would have to be last year when I swam the 200 butterfly for the first time - and I finished! I thought it was awesome that I was able to finish since I doubted myself for so long, and I did it with a decent time."