Upstate New York seems to be a breeding ground for great swimmers. Olympian Ryan Lochte was born in Rochester and spent time as a child living in Canandaigua—a town just outside of Rochester. Blue Wave senior John Nasky, too, hails from Rochester—graduating from Brighton High School. Nasky has been on the team since arriving at Geneseo and started swimming year-round in his sophomore year of high school. “Before [high school], I didn’t really swim much,” Nasky said. “I knew how to swim, but I never practiced or joined a team.”
Nasky said swimming has been a big part of his life at college. Still, he has found it hard to balance the rigor of swimming with the other activities of college.
“I guess my biggest disappointment would not be listening to coach freshman year,” Nasky said. “Taking his suggestion about my GPA and other life activities would have been better.”
In his last year here at Geneseo, Nasky practices vigorously two times per day. There is no doubt that the sport is physically demanding and it has begun to take a bit of a toll on Nasky. “[Head coach Paul Dotterweich] is working us pretty hard—I would like to continue after [college], but I think my body needs a bit of a rest.”
Even with Dotterweich working the team hard, Nasky still has a good working relationship with his coach and values their mutual respect, saying that Dotterweich takes his thoughts into consideration.
“The good team chemistry between both the men’s and the women’s teams is a big factor to the teams’ success in his time here,” Nasky said. “Our team is like a family, which is great. We are lucky to have a good relationship with the girl’s team and we always hang out together. I live with four guys on the team. We all get along pretty well.”
While there were a lot of proud moments for Nasky involving the team, he said that his proudest moment was from the SUNYAC Tournament last year. “A couple of things happened [last year]—I made nationals and we also won SUNYACs,” Nasky said. “We beat SUNY Cortland by a lot ... so that was pretty exciting.”
Nasky has been a devoted athlete, always trying to improve, both for his personal success and the team’s success. “We’re doing pretty well this season … you always want to go faster, but I think at the same time you don’t want to strain your body,” Nasky said. “Everyone wants to do better so it’s all good.”