Name: Chris Deegan
Sport: Swimming
Kendall Pope / Sports Editor
Chris Deegan is a first-year student on the Men’s Swimming and Diving team.
In his first race as an Owl Deegan captured his first collegiate win in the 1,000 freestyle event with a time of 9:54.
Deegan is not only new to Keene, but he is almost new to America — Deegan is from Adelaide, South Australia.
In 2012 Deegan was on a junior team for Australia and was drawn to Keene because of Head Swimming and Diving Coach Jack Fabian’s open-water coaching credentials.
Although he plans to swim the 500, 1,000 and 1,650 he prefers the longer-distance events, because back home he swims open-water events.
“In Australia we don’t have yard pools so that was an adjustment I had to make,” Deegan said.
His method for success is finding a good rhythm and holding a consistent pace and try to get quicker every time.
“It was nice to win my first race,” Deegan said.
Deegan said he was confident in his first race but nervous at the same time.
“Not only was it the first race of the season, it was my first [ever] race,” Deegan said.
His swimming career began when he was nine years old and by the time he was 15 he was doing ten, two-hour swim sessions a week, plus work-out training year round.
Since his time at Keene State College, Deegan said his favorite part of campus is the relationship he has with the swim team.
“It’s a really close group of guys and girls, we spend so much time together,” Deegan said.
Kendall Pope can be contacted at kpope@keene-equinox.com
