Junior Hannah Springer started her Asbury sports career by sweeping away the competition. She arrived on Asbury’s campus in the fall of 2017 and made a name for herself on the swim team; she set two individual records in the 100m and 200m breaststroke and helped set two different relay records.
Her success did not stop there. Springer won conference in two different events, and placed seventh at Nationals in the individual 200m breaststroke, making her an All-American for the NAIA. She received Eagle awards for “Freshman of the Year” and “Athlete of the Year” after her incredible performance in the 2017-2018 season.
Springer seemed unstoppable coming off of her freshman swim season with the Eagles; however, an unfortunate injury would quickly change that. She found out at the end of her freshman year, after having pain in her hip at the National meet, that she had torn her labrum and would need surgery.
Despite the annoyance of this setback, Springer resolved to take most of her sophomore season off and have her labrum repaired in December of 2018.
“It was a six-month recovery, but you’re never fully cleared for everything until a year later, but I was able to come back in 6 months . . . so I had the surgery in December, I came back fully swimming this past summer,” said Springer.
Even though it was tough to transition back into full time training, Springer persevered. She spent the summer of 2019 swimming with her club team three times a week and started running as a way to crosstrain, allowing her hip to be less impacted.
Springer’s training is paying off. So far this season, she has set one meet record, been named conference swimmer of the week on three separate occasions and made all of her National cuts.
With her eyes on the prize, Springer hopes to win all of her events at the conference meet on Feb. 13-15. She also would like to place in the top eight at Nationals and reclaim her All-American title.
Despite the setback, Springer has tenaciously pressed on, making quite a name for herself in the Asbury athletic community.
“Being able to come back and be anywhere near where I was freshman year is unbelievable, and I had to get to the point, personally, that I was okay if I was never able to get back to where I was my freshman year,” said Springer.
Keep an eye out for Springer as she competes in the AAC Championships and the NAIA National Meet later this year.
