Specializing in sprint freestyle today, it all began for Rosman at the age of 6 when her parents signed her up for swim lessons at the YMCA. On Feb. 15, already knowing she would be swimming for Bates College, Rosman received her academic acceptance through Early Decision II which finalized her commitment.
Swimming for Rosman does not only fulfill her competitive side but it has also become an important social environment for her especially since most of the swimmers go through the hardships of the sport together.
“A huge factor for me is the socializing aspect of it. I just think the people I’ve been swimming with I’ve known since I was 7 years old and they’re really important people in my life. I also think I’m a relatively competitive person and being able to swim everyday and race people allows me to use that aspect in an appropriate setting,” Rosman said.
Joining the WJ swim team freshman year, Rosman has continued all throughout high school contributing to some All American Records and school records. The biggest difference between the club team, All Star Aquatics (ASA) and the WJ team is the spirit and environment.
“Club team there is not really a spirit aspect to it. For high school [swim team] there’s a lot more cheering and excitement. There is a competitive aspect because you get to championship meets but everyone is always screaming and cheering like at METROS,” Rosman said.
In Rosman’s case, Bates College was not on her radar until late into the college process despite her search for small liberal arts schools on the east coast. Recommended by a friend and after visiting it along with some other schools in November and December, Bates turned out to please both Rosman and her mother the most as they had the most positive things to say about it.
“I did not know exactly what I was looking for so the fact that I was able to go to a couple of different places and kind of compare just the people, the buildings, anything about the place, I just think made it so much easier to help me decide,” Rosman said.
Despite the commitment process being quite communicative, Bates being division 3, the commitment process was not as personalized as it would have been for a division 1 school. Instructed by her swim coaches, her junior year, Rosman started sending out emails to schools where she believed she wanted to swim at and waited to hear back if they were interested.
“Some people would respond back and just say you are not fast enough or yeah we are super interested. But I actually emailed Bates super late in the process and they were really great about making zoom calls and responding back to emails,” Rosman said.
The extremely rigorous schedule of a swimmer requires an especially dedicated person and without the thoughts of quitting, Rosman would not be where she is today. Testing her commitment to the sport, being out because of Covid and the removal of her wisdom teeth really set Rosman behind and showed her the importance of everyday practice.
“I was out again and it took me so long, not until this year, to get back to feeling the best in the water. So I hadn’t been dropping for like two and a half years and it’s such a frustrating mental block to have to deal with especially as a sprint freestyler cause your times are so specific. I would get really really in my head and I had a really really hard time until I moved groups this year with a new coach and a new environment and it really helped me so I’ve been able to get back into it,” Rosman said.
