She’s only a sophomore.

That’s the thing about Elyse McDonough, co-captain of the swimming and diving team — she’s so young.

So it is understandable that her father, Michael, looks at McDonough’s blond hair and blue eyes and sees only his daughter, a year and a half removed from her Delmar high school.

‘Once you hit the level she has, you are in a different pond,’ he admitted. ‘Of course, the people in her new pond are at the same level she is.’

Hardly.

McDonough holds more individual school records — three — than any other woman in SU history. In the past 10 days, the 5-foot-9 swimmer has broken two 23-year-old records, wiping Robin Butler, the one-time All-American, off SU’s record books.

McDonough’s seems to be in a pond built for one.

But with McDonough, it doesn’t work that way. It never has.

‘She has always been popular, which is surprising because she has always been so busy,’ said her mother Rosie McDonough. ‘All through high school, it was morning practices, then school, then evening practices.

‘But whenever she was home, the phone never stopped ringing. Kids are just drawn to her. I don’t know why.’

Whether it was her popularity that got her into student politics, or politics that made her popular, McDonough was in student government throughout high school.

From her freshman to senior years, she was a student senator, one of six people elected from each grade level. The experience was rewarding, she said.

‘If our grade was having problems, they could come to me, and I would help make changes,’ McDonough said. ‘From a student’s perspective, it was great. I really got to see what the problems were and get a say in how they were fixed.’

Hard-working and dedicated, she is well suited for fixing problems.

By most accounts, though, she has never hogged the problem-solving spotlight. In fact, she loathes spotlights in general.

‘She just does not crave attention,’ said Spencer Raymond, her boyfriend and one of the swimming team’s jesters. ‘She doesn’t need it. She is so self-motivated that she never tries to grab everybody’s attention.’

She fulfills her position as one of the leaders on the swim team not by shouting, as others do, but by leading from outside the limelight.

It’s her way of accomplishing the difficult task of motivating the 14-woman squad.

‘She always goes out of her way to make people feel comfortable,’ Raymond said, ‘but she doesn’t really stick her head out too often. She leads by example. She is easily one of the biggest leaders-by-example I have ever met.’

Her dedication extends beyond the pool and into the classroom. She has a 3.8 GPA. And it isn’t as if she takes easy classes: the television, radio and film major has her carrying 18 credits this semester.

‘She is all hard work,’ her mother said. ‘Whatever she does, she does 100 percent.’

As the swimming and diving season winds down, McDonough devotes more and more attention to the pool. She wakes up for 6 a.m. practice four times a week. She never finishes her swimming commitments until 5 p.m.

Her two shattered school records are a testament to what her work can achieve. Still, she is young.

The potential for greatness is there. Her coach Lou Walker knows it.

‘Being successful in school, which she is, and being successful in the pool is really important to her,’ Walker said. ‘You can tell.’

Last year she competed in the Big East Championships, placing seventh in the 200-yard butterfly. She will be there again Feb. 21-23, hoping to secure a conference championship. After that, she hopes to be invited to the NCAA Championships in Austin, Texas.

She hasn’t conquered that pond yet, but she has time.

Said Walker: ‘She is planning for success, and she is obviously getting there.’

Published on February 5, 2002 at 12:00 pm