Finding joy

It was three weeks before the start of the 2013-14 school year, and just days before the IU swimming team left for the U.S. Open in Irvine, Calif.

More than 1,500 miles away from Bloomington, Kait Flederbach was packing up everything she owned. She was preparing to return home to Indiana, just in time for a short visit to IU’s campus.

“We were able to barely squeeze it in so she could see campus and get to meet the kids who happened to be here at that time,” IU Coach Ray Looze said.

IU was the only school Flederbach had heard from — the only school she would visit before making a decision on where to spend her final year of eligibility.

During the U.S. Open the following week, Looze received a call.

“She said, ‘If I were to come to Indiana, would I be able to go to this conference for USA Swimming in September?’” Looze said. “And I go, ‘Absolutely.’ And she goes, ‘Well, in that case, I’m a Hoosier.’ She was just joking around, but that’s the way Kait is.”

After making the decision to leave Arizona, accepting IU’s offer was an easy one, Flederbach said.

“The team was such a family,” she said. “I couldn’t even believe how welcoming they were. You could just see the chemistry between everybody. It wasn’t fake.”

“Immediately, I knew it was perfect.”

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A seven-time All-American swimmer, Flederbach became the newest member of IU’s women’s swim team. She was the fifth and final member of the 2013-14 senior class.

She spent her first three years of eligibility at the University of Arizona, a swimming program consistently ranked in the top 25.

At last year’s NCAA Championships, the sprinter was 17th in the 50-yard freestyle and 20th in the 200-yard freestyle.

She was also a part of Arizona’s record-setting 400-yard freestyle relay.

Flederbach even competed on the international stage. At the 2012 Olympic trials, she placed sixth in the 50-meter freestyle and 22nd in the 100-meter freestyle.

Yet, despite her success in the pool, Flederbach wasn’t happy.

Before her sophomore year, coaching changes within the Arizona program, including a new head coach, provoked a tough transition.

Still, she gave it two year’s trial, competing through her sophomore and junior years. She said the atmosphere became increasingly more difficult for her as time went on.

“The whole atmosphere of the team and everything just became so different, and it was really toxic for me,” Flederbach said. “I was so unhappy to where I knew I wasn’t going to swim on the team anymore and whether I was even going to swim for my last year.”

She had originally chosen to attend Arizona rather than accept offers from Wisconsin or Kentucky. It was the best fit for her both athletically and academically, she said.

Although Flederbach admits she had no immediate preference on which school she would attend, there was no question whether or not she would continue swimming collegiately after high school.

“It was kind of just a given, because I had been swimming for so long and I loved it,” Flederbach said. “I really wanted to continue it and see how far I could go. It wasn’t really a conscious decision, I just knew I would.”

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She said IU wasn’t even on her radar at the time. She didn’t want to stay close to home.

“I definitely wanted to go out of state, go far away and see more places, just go somewhere really new,” she said.

Three years later, she would no longer swim for Arizona.

Giving up the sport she loved, however, wasn’t an option. Flederbach needed to find another school that would take her.

That’s when she received a message from IU junior Allie Day.

It was July 2013 and news was out that Flederbach had been granted her release from Arizona.

Just more than a month before the start of her senior year, she was searching for a school that she could call home.

“I went in to the head coach and asked for my release,” Flederbach said. “Eventually I got released to talk to other schools, and when that hit the news, she messaged me.”

Day and Flederbach grew up swimming together. As a part of the same swimming zone in Indiana, the two attended national meets together, competing in their respective events.

Day went on to swim at Center Grove High School, while Flederbach went to Westfield.

Years later, the two were reunited as teammates.

For Flederbach, IU didn’t just represent a chance to compete. It has taught her to love swimming all over again, she said.

“I have a totally different perspective on swimming and on life, just because I don’t take things for granted now and I really appreciate all the small things,” she said. “I just feel so a part of the team. I’ve never had so much fun swimming.”

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Throughout the season, Flederbach has recorded personal best times in every one of her events.

And that was just the first step toward etching her name in the IU history books.

At this year’s Big Ten Championships, she became the fastest Hoosier ever to swim the 100-yard freestyle.

She was also part of the school’s record-setting 200-yard freestyle relay team and 400-yard medley relay team. In the 200 free she earned the second-fastest split in school history with a time of 22.40 seconds.

She said her experience at IU has not only come with racing success, but has taught her how much she has learned about herself.

“I’ve just learned a lot about how to deal with adversity and truly have a positive outlook,” she said. “No matter what happens, happiness is so important. If you can just make the smallest tweak in your outlook, it makes a huge difference.”

While this is her last year of athletic eligibility, Flederbach has a year of school left.

After completing her degree in psychology, she hopes to go on to graduate school to study clinical psychology and eventually help patients with pain management or mental illness.

When her season ends, Flederbach’s swimming career won’t be finished.

She, along with a group of seniors, will continue to train and compete in meets over the summer. She said they hope to compete through next year as well.

As for the next Summer Olympics, Flederbach said she is taking it one day at a time.

“I don’t know about the 2016 trials,” she said. “I’m terrible at planning, so I don’t know. We’ll see.”

After leaving her home state in search of adventure, Flederbach has come back home to find something she now realizes is most important — her happiness.

That joy is constantly apparent, Looze said.

“It feels like she’s been a Hoosier the entire time,” he said. “That’s how good of a fit it was for us. We all want to see Kait happy.”

In her one year as a Hoosier, Flederbach has left her mark on IU swimming in more ways than one.

“She is one of those teammates that come into your life so quickly and make such a positive impact on you that it’s hard to imagine how you got through life without them,” teammate Brooklynn Snodgrass said. “She is always there to listen to you or there when you need a good laugh, cry or race.”

@Grace_Palmieri