By Kelsey Lynch, Swimming World College Intern
KINGSTON- Once in a while, if you’re extremely lucky, you will meet someone like Natalie Lewis. She graduated from the University of Richmond in 2011 with a degree in art history and a minor in elementary education. Lewis dedicated four years to Richmond’s Division I Women’s Swimming and Diving Program.
On May 9, 2014, Lewis was killed in a hot air balloon accident in Virginia along with two others. She was the daughter of Patricia and Evan Lewis, with two siblings Evan Jr. and Caroline. Lewis was 24 years old. She was engaged to Michael Dougher.
Her teammates knew her as a proud resident of Buffalo, N.Y. Lewis attended Nardin Academy before studying at Richmond. She began swimming competitively before the age of 10 and continued swimming after her college graduation with a Masters team. After graduating, she worked as the director of basketball operations for Richmond’s basketball program.
Lewis was an exceptional swimmer, teammate, and friend.
Not just anyone could make a special connection with every person on their team- even those they did not train with. Not just anyone takes the time to hand-make cards to encourage others or just because they deserved a random card. Not just anyone dedicates their time to making sure everyone around them is happy and comfortable. Not just anyone is labeled the hardest worker by their coach and friends. And no, not just anyone could be an accomplished NCAA Division I swimmer, bringing light into the room (or the pool) each day.
Lewis truly was all of this and so much more. Her coach Matt Barany sat to speak with me in sunny Siesta Key Beach in Sarasota, Fla. last week. He talked about Lewis’ contagiously positive personality and incredible work ethic.
“By nature she was a very happy person. She just liked being around other people,” Barany said.
Lewis had an infectious smile and rosy cheeks her teammates and friends recall so vividly.
She was captain of Richmond’s women’s-only team both her junior and senior years at Richmond. But she played the part her whole college career. Lewis was a strong leader in that people wanted to follow her because she was unconditionally kind, positive, and thoughtful.
She often made cards for people and Coach Barany was lucky enough to receive plenty to remember her by. Lewis signed her cards with a heart and “Nat.” Barany took the time to lift this heart from her signature and have it printed onto Richmond’s team cap- visible for all to notice and appreciate. The team also made shirts that have her trademark signature printed on the back. Barany and his swimmers all wear blue and red beaded bracelets with Lewis’ initials between two heart beads.
Photo Courtesy: Meredith Gouger
“We feel the heart has been a part of us for the last eight months,” Barany said.
The heart symbol is a simple way for him, the team, and those close to Lewis to share their love for one another. Just as she constantly did for them. Anyone who knew Lewis recognizes how fortunate they were to have experienced her love.
Siesta Key, Fla. is a special location for the Richmond team, and always was for Lewis, because her grandfather owned a condo there. Each year, during the team training trip, the girls always enjoyed a dress-up meal together in Siesta Key.
“It’s hard being down here in Siesta Key,” Barany said. “Not having her on your mind here is impossible.”
As a friend, Lewis was selfless. She was very dedicated to her faith. She made sure that everyone around her felt special, no matter how small or large their accomplishment was.
“Her positivity was relentless,” Allison Titley, a senior on the Richmond team recalls.
Before signing with Richmond, Titley took a recruiting trip and Lewis was her host swimmer.
“I could tell she had such a big impact on the team…there was this light around her,” Titley said.
Natalie Lewis and Katherine Sieben (above)
“She had an uncanny ability to remember every single important event that was going on in her friends’ lives, even if you only mentioned it to her one time,” Lewis’ best friend, teammate, and neighbor Katherine Sieben said.
Sieben recalled one morning where she returned home from a run and Lewis had left her a package with a homemade snickerdoodle inside. The note read, “A little snickerdoodle for you. Have a good day :).”
Lewis cared so deeply for people, and offered support constantly. Sieben and Lewis spent their time together finding and gaining meaningful experiences by hiking, visiting museums, exploring Virginia, enjoying long walks, and playing Frisbee.
“She thoroughly enjoyed every moment of her astoundingly beautiful life,” Sieben said.
Jessie Krebs graduated from Richmond in May 2014. She was a freshman when Lewis was a senior captain.
“She’s one of those people that knows what you need before you even know yourself,” Krebs said.
As a teammate, Lewis was passionate about the well-being of the girls on the team. Krebs recalls the end of her own swimming career last year, when it was a bit difficult for her to adjust to student life, minus the athlete part. One day, Krebs checked her mailbox to find a lengthy handwritten note (in Lewis’ recognizable penmanship). It reminisced on their time swimming together and offered Krebs encouragement, assuring her that everything would be okay. The letter reminded Krebs that Lewis considered them teammates for life. This type of gesture was routine for Lewis, and was exactly what Krebs needed, she said.
“Everyone knows her smile defined her.” Krebs said. “But even her personality smiled. I mean, how can someone’s personality smile? She was just that kind of person.”
As an athlete, Lewis was “that ambitious, hardworking girl with a lot of drive,” according to Barany. Her teammates agree. Lewis never complained about hurting or anything being too difficult for her, no matter how tough practices got. A trait swimmers pray for in their captains to help them push forward, Barany said.
A freestyler, Lewis always delivered her best effort in workouts.
“She had these pink cheeks that would get so red the whole practice,” Krebs said.
Even when afraid of a challenge, she would give energy to other people. And that was her day-to-day behavior.
When the Richmond women lifted weights at 5:30 a.m., everyone but Lewis seemed to drag along. Krebs described one instance her sophomore year after Lewis’ passing that the women were particularly quiet one early morning. Jay DeMayo, the lifting coach, proceeded to turn off the music and told the girls that they needed to bring some of Lewis’ spirit to their workout, since she was not there to do so.
“This was a message that stuck with me in each weights session for the rest of my career,” Krebs said.
Lewis’ rosy cheeks were noticed by everyone on the team.
“She gave 110 percent each and every day in the pool and in the weight room,” Sieben said. “During every practice, you could always look over and expect to see Natalie breathing hard, face red from exertion.”
Lewis always wanted to be on a relay, Barany said. When the girls wrote their goals for the 2009-2010 season on the backs of t-shirts, Lewis’ was to make it on an A-10 relay.
At A-10 Championships, her junior year, she earned a spot in the 400 freestyle relay. She swam the second leg of the relay with her best friend Sieben swimming third.
“She was ecstatic to be on the relay and it meant everything to her to be a part of it,” Sieben said. “I was a senior, so this happened to be the last collegiate race of my career. I was moved that Natalie was a part of my last swim.”
The women won the A-10 Championship almost every year Lewis was on the roster, and she undeniably helped lead them to these titles. Lewis was a passionate friend, teammate and athlete. Lewis’ passing was indeed tragic. The memory of her constant smile, charisma, and selflessness continues to inspire the Richmond Women’s Swimming and Diving team and the whole Atlantic 10 Conference.
Photo Courtesy: Katherine Sieben