Rooker Makes a Splash in Liberty’s Swimming Team

Senior breaststroke and individual medley specialist Prudence Rooker will officially be a “swammer” as of Feb. 17. Currently a member of Liberty Women’s Swimming and Diving, Rooker and the rest of the team will compete in the Costal Collegiate Swimming Association (CCSA) Conference Championships at University of Georgia. The end of this meet will mean the end of an era for Rooker and her family.

The Rooker family is one of swimmers. Prudence’s older brothers Daniel and Johnathan swam at Kenyon College, her sister Sharon at Stevens Institute of Technology and her other brother Gabe at Louisiana State University and University of Wyoming. Rooker said that it did not even occur to her until she got older that most kids played different sports than their siblings.

“It’s always kind of been a family affair,” Rooker said. “I feel like swimming is not ever going to really leave the family. When swim meets came around when we were younger we would all go. It didn’t matter who was swimming, we packed up the trailer and the truck and we road tripped it to wherever it was going to be and stayed out there for five days. It was never like a one-person sport.”

Rooker began swimming at the age of 2, when her four older siblings were beginning their careers. She said her parents would make it a point to take her and her siblings to the pool, just so they could learn how to swim. The family progressed to taking lessons and then to joining a swim team.

“Then, I started competitively swimming between 4- and 5-years-old,” Rooker said. “I was too small to start competing earlier, so they told me to wait. Dan was 8 when he started, so I just followed suit.”

Rooker reflected on how swimming has taken on different stages from when she started, to now finishing off her collegiate career.

“I think different things have kept me going this long,” Rooker said. “In the beginning it was naturally my siblings. I wanted to be just like them. I also wanted to beat their times and compete and train with them. Going into high school, it was more about setting myself up for a college career, making times that I could get recruited with. And college has been the dream.”

Rooker’s success in the pool could be defined as a dream. She has won 26 individual events in dual meets in just her first three years, made three NCAA B-cuts in her career and has five CCSA Individual Medalist Honors. In January, she was named CCSA Conference Swimmer of the Week two weeks in a row, which has never been done before in program history.

But, these are not the only aspects to the dream Rooker mentioned. She said she knew when she chose Liberty that she was not signing up for the stereotypical college lifestyle, but it ended up being more than she hoped or expected.

“Liberty swimming and diving has been the entire, and I’m not exaggerating, it has been the entirety of my college experience,” Rooker said. “I thought I knew what I was going to get out of it, but, really when you delve in and open up, I got so much more. I got more than teammates, I got lasting friendships. I got more than coaches, I got mentors for life, not just on the pool deck.”

As she prepares for the next two weeks, Rooker is confident that her senior season has set her up well for her last conference meet. Just last weekend at the Natatorium’s Grand Opening meet, she swam a 1:01.82 100 breastroke, only .21 seconds off her life-time best time of 1:01.61. Head coach Jake Shellenberger called her performance one of the best in-season showings in program history.

“My mindset heading into it is to not stress about what has already been done,” Rooker said. “We have a strong mindset and culture and we put in the time. So, I think at conference, whatever performances happen, they’ve already been cooking for a long time. Just letting that go and focusing on having fun and enjoying my last time with the team is going to be the focus.”

After her last meet ends and she graduates with a degree in graphic design in May, Rooker plans on moving back home to Forest Grove, Oregon, and closer to her family.

“I don’t really know what I want to do next year,” Rooker said. “I have ideas. I would really love to work for Nike, but you know, nothing really ever goes as planned. I don’t want to set things in my head a certain way and not be open to anything else.”

And, as for her future in swimming, the world will just have to keep their eyes peeled.

“I don’t know if I’ll do master’s swimming,” Rooker said. “I definitely will not stop swimming until I’m ready to be done. But I don’t think it’s going to last like 20 or 30 years. Just give it five or two, who knows, and we’ll see where I am.”