Swimmer back home in Indiana

Junior swimmer Brooke Taflinger is "home sweet home" in the Hoosier state. Taflinger, a native of Kokomo, went to the University of Florida for her freshman year. But she transferred to IU after her freshman year and received a release from her scholarship at Florida, making her eligible to compete for the Hoosiers this year.\n"I got homesick, and that played a big part of it," Taflinger said of her transfer. "When I was (at Florida) they made me not like swimming anymore. It felt more like a job than more like an activity that I choose to do."\nThat pressure and lack of pleasure in swimming spurred Taflinger to quit the sport for six weeks until she was contacted by head coach Dorsey Tierney. Tierney had been notified by Florida head coach Gregg Troy that Taflinger was on the verge of dropping out of the sport all together. Taflinger, who was recruited by Tierney out of high school, took another trip to IU and decided to make the switch.\n"Florida was always my dream school since I was little," Taflinger said. "I had to go there and see for myself what it was like. It's really good to be back in my home state, to be close to my parents and friends so they can come and watch me swim. There is nothing like Indiana."\nTaflinger placed ninth in the 200-yard individual medley at the 2000 Southeastern Conference Championships and finished in the top 20 in the same event at the NCAA Championships. She hopes to shave a couple of seconds off her personal bests in both the 200-Individual Medley and 400-IM throughout the year. With those times, Taflinger hopes she can win the 400-IM at the Big Ten Championships and finish with at least a top three in the 200-IM.\nHer experiences at Florida have helped Taflinger in the training room and she hopes bringing that knowledge to IU will help the Hoosiers reach the next level.\n"There are a lot of things I learned about myself and my swimming (from Florida)," she said. "The training down there was really tough; so the things I didn't think I could do, now I can say 'I can do this, because I have done it before.' I think I have a better work ethic, and with my experience from last year I know that I can do things, and that helps my training."\nFreshman teammate Erin Smith said Taflinger's work ethic pushes her to train harder. \n"She comes in and takes command and works hard, and that makes me want to work hard," Smith said of Taflinger.\nSmith competes with Taflinger in the 200-yard freestyle and said the duo push each other to keep posting lower times.\n"We are both really competitive," Smith said. "We don't get mad at each other, but we are both telling each other, 'I'm going to beat you.'"\nTaflinger said she welcomes the competition from Smith and other teammates.\n"Definitely in practice we push each other," Taflinger said. "If one of us is having a tough set we have to be verbally encouraging to each other."\nTierney echoed Smith's opinions of Taflinger's strong work ethic and believes they are keys to her personal success and motivation for others on the team.\n"She trained at a tremendously high level last year, and I think her expectations of herself are a little bit higher," Tierney said. "She is well adjusted as far as training is concerned, she is very experienced in training and that helps the people around her in practice. She has earned the respect of her teammates based on her work ethic. She is not afraid whatsoever to challenge herself on a daily basis, and I think a lot of that she learned in her freshman year at Florida."\nTierney is also happy to see Taflinger's enjoyment in swimming back at a high point since her high school career and thinks that can only help the team.\n"I see enjoyment in Brooke (Taflinger)," she said. "I saw a lot of that in her in high school and I think she lost a little bit of that last year. But I definitely see it again, she just loves to race, and when you have people like that who are excited to get up on the blocks, it filters back down through the team"