Things are a bit different for Cayleigh McCusker.

The 2018 Rowan grad has taken her knowledge and experience in swimming to the coaching side.

McCusker, who earned a bachelors degree in marketing, was a four-year member of the Rowan women’s swimming and diving team. In her senior season last year, she had her best performances at the coveted Metropolitan Championships (Rowan won) with times of 1:09.58 and 2:32.21 in the 100 and 200 breaststrokes.

Fast forward a year later.

Now outside of the pool, McCuster feels like this year’s team has an opportunity to capture the title once again and bring home their third straight NJAC championship.

“I do believe the girls have what it takes this year,” McCuster said. “It would be really awesome to see happen again. This time, being on the other side of things, knowing that I am able to still contribute if they do see that success at Mets again this year [is special].”

McCusker had taken several young swimmers under her wing, but probably most notable is her former teammate and now pupil, junior Carlee Timmins.

“I’ve really taking a liking to Carlee,” McCuster said. “I think she is our best girl distance swimmer. I think she can have a really great season and take the next step and make nationals.”

Timmins has had an outstanding season so far. The biggest highlight was swimming a winning time of 5:05:09 in the 500 freestyle two weeks ago at the WPI invitational.

Besides the swimmers, there is another person benefiting from having McCusker back on the pool deck and that is head coach Brad Bowser.

Head coach Brad Bowser has seen nothing but positives from having McCusker back on his team. One thing that he has noticed specifically is her eye for detail and technique in the swimmers.

“It’s been special to have her part of the program again,” Bowser said. “As a coach, she really brings a special attention to detail. She’s able to give her insight on stroke mechanics and how to deal with certain race techniques.”

McCusker and Bowser both hope to continue to see improvements from the team as the they heads down to Deerfield Beach, Florida to continue their training in preparation for the next major meet that is the Metropolitan Championships later in February. 

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