Swim season is well underway with four official meets already under the belts of our very own varsity swim team. This week I visited the aquatic wonderland of Oberlin College’s Carr Pool to interview one of the swimming Yeomen. Hailing from Wyoming (Ohio), junior Thomas Limouze (pronounced Li-mooz) can be seen scooting about campus in a bright purple jacket. He took a break to give me some inside info about what goes on in the pool.

What are your main events?

Right now I am probably going to swim the 400m IM, the 1650m and the 500m free. For everyone who doesn’t know, what does the IM entail?That’s just the medley. So it’s a medley of the strokes. I never really figured it out ‘til this year. You got like food medleys and stuff and you have stroke medleys.

Which one of those will be your strongest race?

The 500m because I swim the best and fastest at that one.

How do you feel about your competitions thus far?

Yeah, we’ve had some meets. We competed against Denison, Baldwin Wallace, OWU and Wittenberg. I’ve gotten progressively better and I feel pretty strong. I’ve been swimming the 1000m, the 500m and the 200m fly.

What would you consider your swimming style to be?

I like to back-half it. So usually if I am in a race with somebody, I like to stay back for a little more than the first half of it and then I usually beat people in the last quarter of the race because I don’t like it to hurt too much.

So you don’t like to blow your load too early.

Yeah, but I am going to have to change that because I am going to be racing people that are faster so I have to start stepping it up earlier and invoke a race to see who’s better.

How’s the team this year?

We’re kind of thin on the guy’s side. We have one experienced freshman and a few more, but they are all sweet and we are having a lot of fun. We are all fitting in and it is pretty low key, which is nice.

Speaking of thin on the guy’s side, I know last year there was some talk that maybe some of the guys weren’t thin enough.

Yeah, I heard something about that too, so this summer I ate right and started running a lot and lost a lot of weight. Just trying to even that up.

How’s Joel [Ketner]?

He’s perfect. He doesn’t have to be skinny ‘cause he’s a breaststroker.

Who are Oberlin’s biggest swimming rivals this year?

I don’t know. I guess that Witt...we’ll give them a run for their money. I don’t even know who else.

Do you have any personal rivals?

Yeah, there’s this freshman at Witt who I swam with in high school and he beat me which is kind of shitty. But he’s getting all big and older so I have to get him at conference.

Do you talk any trash at meets?

No, because I don’t really know anybody, but we talk trash to each other all the time. Ben [Pierce] and Gabo [Golden] talk trash constantly about everything.

How do you get inside people’s heads, then?

Well, it’s all mental. If you are in a race, you’re worrying what the person next to you is going to do. So what I got to do this year is stop worrying about what they’re going to do and make them worry about what I am going to do.

If you could be any aquatic animal, what...

(Interrupting.) A dolphin because they are so cute.

Would you rather be Greg Luganis, Becky Jasontek [Ohio local and USA synchronized swimmer], or Mark Fino [head coach of the swim team]?

(Laughter.) Well...they are all girls so I guess Becky Jasontek so I could synchronize swim.

Who’s the hottest swimmer right now?

Natalie Coughlin. One of our guys was at the Olympics and he got her autograph for Craig [Betchart].

When’s your next home meet?

Saturday at one o’clock against Case Western. Be there.

If you are all underwater, how can we get in the heads of the Case swimmers?

You can tell them that Limouze likes to bring it back in the second half and they better watch out. Just say it right behind them while they are not swimming.