Last year it was just a shock that I was going, because I didn't make the cut (my sophomore year). For my junior year to make it to state, it was a great feeling.

I felt that I had a good, smart race for sectionals. I felt that I didn't over swim it and I felt confident that I could make it (to state) again. Yeah, it feels great going down again.

This time it feels like I belong there and I'm supposed to be there.

When I started on the club team, I was the slowest person out there and never imagined that I could ever be good. I was able to stick it through and push myself and that's how I got where I am now.

Never give up, which is the lesson I learned from boxing. As soon as you learn to never give up, you have to learn the power and wisdom of unconditional surrender, and that one doesn't cancel out the other; they just exist as contradictions. The wisdom of it comes as you get older.

I tell people, 'I have a Ph.D. from Google University.'