Rachel Wilson, a long-distance swimmer on the UNC Wilmington women’s swim team, spent five hours each day throughout the Seahawks’ winter-break workouts swimming. A typical workout day involved waking up “super early,” getting to the outdoor swimming pool while it was still “freezing cold” and then proceeding to swim 10,000 meters each morning.

The morning workout lasted about three hours. That night, Wilson would return to the pool “when it felt even colder than it was in the morning” for another couple hours of swimming. “The night workouts were shorter,” said Wilson. “We only swam 6,000 meters each night.”

The worst part about these workouts, according to Wilson, isn’t the unimaginable distances, but getting out in the cold afterward to put the cover back on the pool.

To an average person, 10,000 meters of swimming sounds like masochism, but Wilson said, “It’s really fun actually. You just have to get a good song in your head and then swim to it.” When asked what songs she has in her head while she swims, “Taylor Swift” was her emphatic response.

The upcoming situation for the Seahawk swimmers could be described by a few of Swift’s lyrics from “Ours.” Swift sings, “The stakes are high, the water is rough.” The stakes will certainly be high when the Seahawks begin the CAA Championships, Feb. 22. Wilson hopes the water is rougher for the athletes representing other schools than it will be for her.

“In the shorter races, the 50m and the 100m, the races are really close,” said Wilson, “but in the 1650m race if someone runs out of energy, sometimes there is a big gap. It’s really rough to catch up if you get behind.” To ensure that she has enough energy to excel for the Seahawks, the team is easing up on the distances covered during practice. “It’s weird. I have all this energy during class, and I just feel like running or going crazy,” said Wilson, “but we aren’t allowed to do anything too strenuous either, so I don’t.”

Wilson, like the rest of the team, is excited about the conference championships. “The guys are trying for their 11th straight championship, which is really exciting,” said Wilson, “but I think both the men and women will do really well this year.”

One of their opponents at the CAA championships will be the Drexel Dragons. Wilson will be fighting those dragons just like Swift sings about in “Long Live.” Here’s to hoping that—just like Swift sings about—the Seahawks will be able to say “we held (our trophies) up for our town.”