Tennessee senior Maddy Banic is locked in and focused like never before.
She is approaching her final SEC meet this week with renewed energy and determination that she has never had. She has a new outlook on things and has put less pressure on herself in her last year of swimming, although she admits this year has not felt like senior year to her.
“I don’t ever really think about things like, ‘This is my last time,'” Banic told Swimming World.
“Everything has been about the Lady Vol unit as a whole. This is the year that we are looking for an SEC championship. This is the year where we worked our butts harder than we ever have and that’s the only thing I’m really focusing on. I don’t think the fact that I’ll be done in a month is going to hit me until I’m actually done.”
Banic has put 100 percent of her focus this year on being selfless and being the best teammate she can be for the Lady Vols at the University of Tennessee. But getting to that state of mind has been a long, long process.
In September 2017, she left the team for 30 days to go get help for her depression and anxiety disorder. She did not compete at all during the fall semester in 2017, but came back in October that season renewed and refreshed.
Banic wrote a detailed blog post in September 2018 exactly one year after she left to go get treatment. She opened up about a panic attack she experienced on deck at the 2017 NCAAs in Indianapolis, causing her to have to leave the meet and go to the hospital. She had to scratch out of the 100 fly B-Final and Tennessee was forced to make a change in its 200 medley relay that night.
“I don’t remember everything that happened, but what I do know is that I gave up between 10-40 points by missing my races and played a big hand in the Vols placing 22nd that year,” Banic said in the blog post.
After that meet, she couldn’t shake the thought away of how she let her teammates at Tennessee down, so she turned to alcohol and self-harm. And after an intervention from two of her best friends, Banic left Knoxville to go get help at an in-patient treatment center in Chicago Labor Day weekend.
Photo Courtesy: Maury Neipris/Tennessee Athletics
And the reason she left was because she wanted to be better for her team. And since she has come back, it has only gotten better for her.
“I still have my hard days but I have an amazing team who will pull me through those hard days. (Tennessee head coach) Matt Kredich helps pull me through those hard days more than anyone else.
“I feel like I’m ready for this SEC meet and I don’t know if I’ve ever truly been able to say that. That I’ve been absolutely ready for a meet before.”
And why is she more ready than ever? Because it’s not all about her this year.
“It’s not about what place I get or what times I go. I don’t care if I go a best time. I don’t care if I place first. All I care about is being able to put the team in a position where we have the chance to win. If that means I get third and two Lady Vols beat me, that is absolutely fine with me.”
Banic says that Tennessee is searching for a team title at the SEC meet in 2019, something that the Lady Vols have never achieved. Tennessee has been second five times at SECs on the women’s side in 1988, 1989, 1990, 2012 and 2016, but have never been team champions.
“Frankly it would be an honor to win the first SEC title and be able to be a part of that,” Banic said. “A big thing we pride ourselves in here is carrying on Lady Vol traditions that have been around since the Lady Vols began and being able to make the people who came before us proud. So us being able to bring home that first SEC Championship would mean the world to our whole team and all of our alumni.”
Photo Courtesy: John Golliher/Tennessee Athletics
Banic didn’t stop there. When it came to NCAA goals, instead of being satisfied with just a top four finish, something Tennessee has only accomplished twice, she said Tennessee wants to win NCAAs. It would be a huge step for a program that was 4th in 1989 and 3rd in 2013.
“We have some tricks up our sleeves that I don’t think anyone has seen yet, no one is expecting it,” Banic said. The Vols were ranked ninth in the last CSCAA Division I poll and were fifth based on the mid-season invites alone. It would be a steep climb for Tennessee, but certainly not out of reach.
But first up for Tennessee is SEC’s this week in Athens, Georgia, where Banic will swim the 50 free, 100 fly and the 100 free.
The team’s motto all season has been all about being aggressive as a unit. Banic said that the team has worked harder than it ever has before, both in and out of the water.
“We’ve been on a mission this year.”
As for anyone specifically who she is excited to watch this week, all she could say was “everyone. Literally everyone.”
“Every single person on this SEC team has made a huge stride in their swimming career this year. Nikol (Popov) has come back from her struggles last year and has absolutely killed it. Erika (Brown) is always so much fun to train with and so good at pushing people in practice so I’m excited to see what she is able to do.
“We have a couple people, freshmen and upperclassmen, who it is their first time at SECs and I’m excited for them to be able to experience the atmosphere the way the rest of us have been able to. Just get that experience under their belt and be able to feed it into their upperclassmen years as they become the ones that people are looking to.”
This round of championship meets at SECs and NCAAs will be the last of Banic’s career. She said she will probably not continue on to the 2020 Olympic Trials because her passion is in short course. But she insisted she has big goals for outside of the pool.
Her immediate plans after swimming are improving mental health laws and restrictions in the NCAA and SEC. She said she has been working a little bit with the Southeastern Conference league office in Alabama to get some legislation passed.
“I want to bring more awareness to it. I want to show student athletes that it’s OK to not be OK. It’s OK to ask for help. It’s OK to put yourself ahead of your team or your coach’s expectations or the world’s expectations and go become human, basically.”
As Banic starts her fourth and final SEC Championship meet tonight, she is finally swimming with a clear head, something that took years of practice to achieve.
And if she feels more ready for SECs than ever before, then it could spell out good things for the University of Tennessee team.
Photo Courtesy: John Golliher/Tennessee Athletics
GO MADDY GO!
Go Maddy. What a story. Best wishes. Can’t believe you are a senior!!!!
Congratulations to you Maddy for your desire to help others and for being a great teammate! You have a very bright future ahead of you. I know your family is proud of you!
Way to go Maddie!
You’re the best Maddie!
So proud of you Maddie!! Best Wishes for everything!!