Yi Ting Siow: Badger Phenom
September 27, 2006 | Women's Swimming & Diving
Last season was a record-setting year for the Wisconsin women's swimming and diving team. An integral component of that 2005-06 squad was All-American Yi Ting Siow, who looks to use her wealth of national and international experience to continue the Badgers ' recent success.
Among her long list of accomplishments, Siow placed sixth in the 200-yard breaststroke at last season's NCAA championships and won that same event at the 2006 Big Ten Championships. Head coach Eric Hansen knows how important Siow is to the success of the team.
'We will be relying very heavily on Yi Ting,' said Hansen. 'She's a proven NCAA finalist.'
This past summer, Siow competed for the Malaysian national team at the 2006 Mutual of Omaha Pan Pacific Championships, in which she placed third in the 200-meter breaststroke B-Final with a mark of 2:32.3 and sixth in the 100-meter breaststroke B-Final at the Pan Pacific Championships. The sophomore believes that her experiences there will definitely help her this coming season.
'For the past few years, going to all the international meets in the summer, I haven't done very well,' said Siow. '(But) this summer, I did really well, and I hope to continue the momentum into this season.'
Siow, who has represented Malaysia in the 2000 and 2004 Olympic Games and the 2002 Commonwealth Games, believes that her international experience certainly gives her an advantage over other collegiate swimmers.
'I have (swum) with the fastest people in the world and I actually did my best, ' said Siow. 'It has just taught me a lot because swimming in the NCAAs or the Big Ten, there is a lot of pressure and I think that I can deal with that pressure better.'
Despite being a two-time Olympian and earning first-team All-Big Ten honors last season, Siow still thinks she has room to improve. When asked what things she still needs to work on, Siow said that she wants to get leaner in order to improve her speed and endurance, be more fit and improve her back to breast turn.
To think that she could improve on an already polished product must be great news to Badger fans (maybe better is that she still has two more years of eligibility after this season). But for now, Siow should yet again prove how indispensable she is to the team.
