‘Never change, Rachel’: Work ethic helps James Buchanan grad make splash at Rutgers
Rachel Kimmel introduced herself to six-time individual Olympic gold medalist Katie Ledecky, noting how excited she was to swim alongside her at the Phillips 66 National Championships in Irvine, Calif.
While it was only a time trial, Kimmel’s new college coach could see that she was a bit thrown off while preparing to swim next to the Olympian.
“The only time I saw her even a little bit nervous was when she swam next to Katie,” Rutgers women’s swimming and diving coach Jon Maccoll said.
The race itself, a 200-meter IM time trial that Kimmel chose to participate in, went as expected for any opponent of the highly-decorated Ledecky.
“She beat me, like bad,” Kimmel laughed.
However, that moment came when it mattered least. The Fort Loudon, Pa., native was able to remain focused throughout her primary events, and during what she called “the most competitive meet I’ve ever been to.”
“Everybody there was like at peak performance, but it was so awesome,” Kimmel said. “I was I was really excited — I wouldn't say I was all that nervous.”
Kimmel placed No. 18 overall in the 100-meter breaststroke at the Phillips 66 National Championships, finishing in second place of the C Final with a time of 1:09.80.
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Her composure is something that’s already apparent to her new coach at Rutgers, where she’s using her fifth year of eligibility and earning a master’s degree in communication after swimming for four years at St. Bonaventure.
“It's almost like she didn't know she was supposed to be nervous,” Maccoll said of her performance at the national championships. "The entire meet, she was so confident.”
Where does Kimmel's confidence come from?
That confidence was something her former James Buchanan High School swim coach Lori Jo McCullough always thought she had. However, Kimmel needed to translate it to the blocks after only beginning to swim competitively at 13, when her father encouraged her to pick a sport to participate in.
She swam for Mercersburg Area Swim Club before joining the high school team as a freshman, while also running cross country. When McCullough joined the program as an assistant coach during her sophomore year in 2015, Kimmel started to rapidly drop her times.
“She was really the one to provide like, the training and the technique to help get to a higher level of competition,” Kimmel said of McCullough. "She would break down our strokes, like rebuild them. We'd work on every little small detail … She really got me a lot faster.”
McCullough swam at the collegiate level at the United States Naval Academy and quickly became the head swim coach at James Buchanan in 2016, coaching during Kimmel’s junior and senior seasons before leaving in 2018.
Under McCullough’s tutelage, Kimmel began to make a lot of small adjustments and focus on mental training. After aiming and failing to break the 100-meter breaststroke record her freshman year, Kimmel swam a 1:11 during her sophomore year to take the record, finally improving on a time that had plateaued.
“It was sort of that first time that all of her work and dedication really paid off with that little bit of time drop,” McCullough said. "She was just so happy. You could tell that she got it, like you could tell that swimming has sort of become part of her.”
By the end of her junior year, she dropped seven seconds, and eventually finished her high school career with a time of 1:03.04 in the event.
Kimmel still holds records at James Buchanan for the 100-meter breaststroke, 200-meter freestyle, 500-meter freestyle and 200-meter IM, according to Swimcloud.
“It's very unusual even for elite athletes to be able to make some of the modifications that she was able to make,” McCullough said. "It's definitely one of her strengths for sure. Combine that with her most excellent work ethic and her competitive drive, her success was pretty inevitable.”
Those attributes and her new, lower times made Kimmel appealing to many college programs, specifically in the 100-meter breaststroke, a technique which she felt always came somewhat naturally to her.
Kimmel did pick to attend a college outside of Pennsylvania, but stayed close to her small-town roots with her choice of St. Bonaventure. She committed to the university of only 2,500 students on her 18th birthday and majored in journalism and mass communications.
McCullough helped Kimmel through that college process, and the swimmer gives her high school coach a lot of credit for the level she’s competing at now.
“I give her so much credit for where I am today,” Kimmel said. “She was the coach that really made me good at swimming. Like, really made me the swimmer I am.”
Kimmel quickly found success with the Bonnies, breaking the school’s 100-meter and 200-meter breaststroke record while earning a bronze medal at the 2019 Atlantic 10 Swimming and Diving Championships during her freshman season.
She broke both records again during her sophomore year, winning silver medals in both events at the 2020 Atlantic 10 Swimming and Diving Championships. She ended her junior season with a gold medal in the 2021 Atlantic 10 championships and another record in the 100-meter breaststroke, while earning another silver medal in the 200-meter version of the event.
Kimmel came just .01 seconds from tying her own program record in the 100-meter breaststroke during the Atlantic 10 championships during her senior year, capping off her career at St. Bonaventure with a silver medal in the event, her seventh individual medal overall.
With her fifth year of eligibility available due to the extra season given to NCAA athletes because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kimmel wanted to swim but wasn’t sure where she wanted to go. While she said that staying at St. Bonaventure was an appealing choice, she chose to transfer to Rutgers.
What will Kimmel be doing at Rutgers?
The Pennsylvania native will have a chance to make an immediate impact with the Scarlet Knights, as her current personal best in the 100-meter breaststroke would break the school record. Kimmel has also had extra time to bed in with her new program on Rutgers’ club team this summer, practicing with her new teammates and coaches.
“It was all within a week, I graduated and then a week later I moved here,” Kimmel said. "It was a little hard at first. I was a little, I guess homesick for St. Bonaventure. Like, this is a huge campus. It's like in a much more populated area; that was an adjustment.”
Despite the changes, Kimmel doesn’t regret her choice.
“I'm really happy that I went here though, it was really perfect,” Kimmel said. “I've swam this whole summer here and I love it. I love the girls I've met so far, my coaches are really great, they know so much and it's become a much higher level of training.”
The swimmer joins a more competitive Big Ten conference, where her personal bests would have placed 12th and 13th in the 100-meter breaststroke and 200-meter breaststroke at the 2022 Big Ten Championships, respectively. She was able to earn medals in the Atlantic 10 with those times throughout her St. Bonaventure career.
However, Kimmel's performance at the Phillips 66 National Championships was encouraging, beating out some of the competition she’ll face in her new conference. She has goals of Big Ten meet success and an NCAA meet appearance, and with her ability to apply herself, her new coach feels like she’ll be able to make a splash for a Rutgers team on the up.
“Her work ethic is like nothing I've ever seen,” Maccoll said. “I've never seen her take a rep off ever, in four months. Never one time have I seen her go half effort on anything. I told her that the other day, I said ‘Never change, Rachel.’”
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Former James Buchanan swimmer takes on new challenge at Rutgers
