Cut Off native sets sights on NCAA championships

Cut Off native Amanda Guidry hopes the third time is the charm.

Today through Saturday, the Delta State University Lady Statesmen junior All-American swimmer competes in her third NCAA Division II Swimming and Diving Championships at the University of Houston Aquatic Center.

Expectations are higher for Guidry this time than in 2007 and 2008.

Last month at the New South Intercollegiate Swim Conference Championships, she set a new conference and school record in her specialty event, the 200 butterfly, with a time of 2:03:90.

“I’m really excited about going to national championships this year because I’m seeded very high,” said Guidry, 20. “Hopefully, I will finish in the top eight. It’s a big honor just to be there, but in swimming, being in that top eight spots is really what you want.”

Currently, Guidry is ranked fifth nationally in the 200 butterfly and eighth in the 100 butterfly.

In her freshman year at national championships, she placed 19th in the 200 and 20th in the 100. Last year, she placed 10th and 17th in those events respectively.

“She has dropped a lot of time since her freshman year,” said Brain Hein, Delta State swimming and diving coach. “I attribute it to her hard work, character and perseverance.”

This season, Guidry was awarded the swim team’s first ever “Black Suit” honor, which is given to “the hardest worker on the team,” according to Hein.

Besides the butterfly swims, Guidry will compete in three other events at the national championships: the 200 individual medley, and the 200 and 400 medley relays.

The daughter of Carolyn and Tab Guidry, Amanda has been swimming since she was nine months old. She and older brother, Ross, were in the family pool everyday, according to Guidry.

From age four to 18, she swam with the Cut Off Hurricanes of the South Central Swim Association summer league. She still considers that the best time she had in the sport.

“That was very fun. College swimming is very serious,” Guidry said. “In summer league, you find the fun in swimming because you have all these little kids who look up to you. You try and be a role model, and I like that.”

At South Lafourche High School, she was Tarpons’ swim team captain for four years and won the Class 5A state title in the 100-yard butterfly her senior year.

After graduating in 2006, she enrolled at Delta State University, which competes in Division II athletics, in Cleveland, Miss.

The psychology major insists there is little difference between the caliber of athletes at the Division I and Division II level.

“We are absolutely the same. We practice just as hard, just as many hours, same distance,” Guidry said. “We swim against schools like Alabama and LSU, and we do very well against them.”

Last season, Guidry took first and second place in the 200 butterfly in meets at LSU and Alabama, respectively. In 2007, she won the 50- and 75-yard butterfly events in a meet at UNO.

The hard work in the pool and the classroom has paid off. This season Guidry was named All Conference and Academic NSISC swimmer for the third year, and an NCAA Academic All American.

Coach Hein believes Guidry will have a breakout performance at the national championships.

“She’s been working hard this season on her turns, not wasting time and getting off the wall quickly,” he said. “She’s continued to work on her underwater dolphin kick, which in collegiate swimming is at least 50 percent of your race.”

While she is used to being in big meets, Guidry still gets the proverbial butterflies in her stomach before a race.

“It’s very nerve-racking, but you have to get over nerves and fears,” she said. “I think about how that whole summer I did nothing but train, while everybody else got to have a life. Once I get the nerves and fears out, I’m ready.”

This may be her third appearance at the national championships, but Guidry will also be an odd commodity. She is one of only a handful of Americans competing.

“The majority of swimmers who make it to nationals are foreigners and not Americans,” she explained. “They are from everywhere in the world.”

The entire Delta State diving team will be in Houston this week as well.

When asked if she would consider joining the dive team, she was not too interested.

“Oh God, I’m even terrified to even do a flip off the diving board,” she said. “There’s no way. We (swimmers) are not even allowed to go off the diving board because the coach doesn’t want us to get hurt.”

The only things that might be hurt this week are records getting broken. But whether Guidry wins or not is not important. What’s important is competing at the highest level to the best of her abilities.

“My goal ever since I started collegiate swimming was to do my best. Not to race the person on the side of me,” she explained. “It’s amazing to win, but if I don’t win, it’s okay. If I hit the wall and I come out second but I swam the best I could swim, I am more than happy with it.”