January 3, 2018 at 12:56 p.m.
Francis finding a home at Liberty
Francis finding a home at Liberty
Kiah Francis just shrugs it off with the upbeat, can-do attitude that led her to two WIAA Division 2 girls' swimming state titles at Rhinelander High School. Now a freshman on the Liberty University women's swimming and diving team, Francis has hardly skipped a beat.
"I feel like I have a second family here and this has already become such a home to me," she told the River News in a phone interview late last month.
It didn't take long for Francis to make an impact. She won the 200-yard individual medley in her very first meet - a dual meet for the Flames at Campbell University Sept. 30 - and has been a consistent fixture in the starting lineup ever since.
Francis said the first few months have been an eye-opening experience. The yardage at practice has increased. There are more two-a-day sessions. Weightlifting is front and center in the training regimen. That's on top of starting college classes and being away from home. Yet Francis said it hasn't taken her long to get her feet wet, so to speak, with the lifestyle of a collegiate student-athlete.
"The first few weeks it was so busy and training starting and everything hit me at once, but the team was so supportive and helpful, helping me find my footing," she said. "I love the classes. I love going to practice. It's D-I college swimming. It's hard, but it's so worth it."
If Francis has struggled with the demands of a D-1 college athlete, Liberty's head coach, Jake Shellenberger said she's not letting on.
"I think she was able to handle it really well," he said. "You look at the metrics - GPA and fast swimming and class attendance and everything else - she is who we thought she was as far as being excellent in all those areas."
The biggest adjustment, according to Francis, has been learning how to swim her fastest during meets, even while battling fatigue.
"There's just a lot of swimming happening and a lot of muscle soreness," she said, noting that the team will hold morning practices even on meet nights. "Then the meet comes in the night and you realize what you can do and it's like I shouldn't have had any problem with this. There's no worries. You go into it with a positive mindset and anything can happen."
That's the reality of being a Division-I athlete, Shellenberger says.
"When we hop an airplane, and spend a lot of money to do it and swim the University of Kansas (as the team did Oct. 6 and 7), it's a big deal. It's a big race and we want to go out there and win. That means we need to swim fast in all of our events being tired."
In addition to the season-opening win in the 200 IM - one of the two events Francis won a state championship in back in November 2016 - she added a win as part of the team's top 200-yard freestyle relay in a double dual against Gardner-Webb and Georgia Southern back on Oct. 27.
Early in the season, Francis has the 17th-fastest time in the nine-team Coastal Collegiate Sports Association in the 400 individual medley. She's also 21st in the 200 IM, 24th in the 200 breaststroke and 27th in the 100 breaststroke.
"She's developed into quite the IM'er and we knew that her 200 IM would be pretty good based on what she was in high school, 2:03 coming out of high school," Shellenberger said. "Her 400 IM has developed nicely over the past two months."
Shellenberger said Francis is likely to compete in both individual medleys plus the 200 breaststroke when the CCSA Championships take place Feb. 14-17 in Athens, Georgia. The top 24 finishers in each event will score points at the conference meet.
Francis has set the bar high for herself in that event. Asked if making it to the B finals, for the ninth-to-16th fastest qualifiers in each event, was a goal, she quickly responded "A." Cracking the top eight and making the A finals may not necessarily be a reach. She posted a time of 2:03.30 in the 200 IM when she won the WIAA state meet, which would currently be the third-fastest time in the CCSA. Francis' collegiate best in the event is 2:07.54, though Shellenberger noted that Liberty has yet to put on the time-shaving speed suits that a number of schools wear. The Flames are saving those for the conference championships.
In the dual at Kansas, Francis placed third in the 100 breaststroke and 400 individual medley. She made the B finals and placed 16th in the 400 individual medley in November at the Frank Elm Invitational hosted by Rutgers. She also had a runner-up finish in the 200 IM Dec. 1 and 2 when Liberty christened its new natatorium with a dual meet win over Campbell.
It was a watershed moment for the program as the state-of-the-art 75,000-square-foot facility held its first meet.
"I know it was a very special moment for the program," Francis said. "It was very awesome. We swam really fast at the home opener, which was really cool. We're looking forward to hosting more events throughout the year. We have a hype video. It's just so awesome. Even though I just got here, I can tell that everyone's been waiting so long for this. It's just been a very special year for our program."
Shellenberger called it a game-changer for the Flames. The new Liberty Natatorium features a main swimming area that can be utilized as a nine-lane 50-meter pool or a 20-pane, 25-yard pool in addition to a separate diving well, two large scoreboards and seating for more than 1,400 spectators, along with other top-notch amenities.
"We went from one of the worst facilities in all of Division I swimming and diving to a top-five facility, one of the best," he said.
The Francis family attended the home opener and she said the family and her former high school coach, Lindsay Byrka, plan to be in attendance in February for the CCSA championships.
"They've been my biggest supporters and I miss them terribly, but I'm really thankful because I feel like they prepared me well for this transition," she said.
Francis is spending some time with her family over the holidays but will be back in action Jan. 6 as Liberty travels to take on Florida Gulf Coast in a CCSA dual. She said its part of a larger training trip to Florida for the team before classes resume on the Liberty campus in mid-January.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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