Last March, 26 women qualified for the NCAA swimming championships in the 100-yard butterfly. UMBC's Ingrid Kilpe was 27th. She missed the cut by nine one-hundredths of a second.
That close call made the Centennial graduate even more determined to make it into this year's field. She will have her best -- and last -- chance to qualify at the Eastern Intercollegiate Championships March 1-4 in Cleveland.
But advancing to nationals is just one of the high goals the 19-year-old set for her sophomore season.
"Last year, I didn't reach all my goals, but I came close," said Kilpe, who set three individual school records at Easterns. "I wanted to be outstanding swimmer at Easterns, I wanted to make NCAAs and I wanted one more record up there [on the UMBC natatorium board]. I've accomplished a lot, but there's still a lot more I can do."
Although the 200-yard butterfly record still eludes her, Kilpe reigns in the 100 backstroke, the 200 individual medley and the 100 butterfly. She also has had a hand in four UMBC relay records.
The top female swimmer on the Retrievers team, Kilpe appears on the brink of moving into the nation's elite class of collegiate swimmers.
"Ingrid is capable of doing amazing things," said UMBC coach Sid Burkot. "If we can just get her to break through one time and realize the success level that she's capable of on the national level, she'll be OK. Sometimes you just need that one special moment in time to take place so you get everything in order mentally."
Kilpe, whose swimming career already spans 14 years, knows her ticket to the collegiate elite lies as much in her mental conditioning as in her physical workouts.
"That's very important," said Kilpe. "You always have to think positive and believe in yourself."
But she doesn't always do that.
"She kind of beats herself up mentally when she doesn't swim well," said Burkot. "I think sometimes Ingrid forgets how important she really is to our program and to us as a person."
Kilpe has had great dual-meet success, turning in consistent winning performances to lead the Retrievers to a 9-4 record against some stiff competition. Limited by NCAA rules to three events per meet, she won two individual events against 10 opponents and often swam a leg on a winning relay team.
In the Retrievers' 130-108 win over Rutgers on Feb. 3, Kilpe tallied 27 points by winning three events, the 200-yard IM, the 200 butterfly and the 200 backstroke.
A physically strong swimmer, Kilpe has trained and competed through illness this winter. Her victories have been crucial to wins over such strong programs as North Carolina State and West Virginia.
"Even in West Virginia when she felt rotten and we thought she had mono, she still won the events she needed to win for us. Without those, we wouldn't have won the meet," said Burkot, who has coached Kilpe for nine years, the first seven with the Retriever Aquatic Club.
Before she got to UMBC, Kilpe already had some success on the national level. At 13, she was the nation's No. 1 butterfly swimmer in her age group.
Every year since then, she has qualified for the United States Swimming national championships. At 15, she finished second at junior nationals in the 200-yard backstroke. As a senior in high school, she was 12th in the 100-meter butterfly at senior nationals.
Two years ago at the Olympic Festival, Kilpe came in fifth in the 200-meter backstroke. She has trained twice at the Olympic Development Center in Colorado Springs, Colo.
While Kilpe plans to train hard for the next two years to break her own records and reach the NCAA finals, once her college days are over so are her swimming days. By then, she doesn't think she will want to continue competing.
"No way. I've put in so much up to now. I don't want to regret anything either, but I want to end on a high note and move on in life," she said.