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04/23/2015 12:01 AMFrom the time she was six months old, Ashley Beeman has been around the water. Now after years of doing different strokes in various settings, Ashley is ready to swim upstream once again in a quest for national gold.
The Guilford resident and swimmer at the Branford Parks & Recreation/Soundview Family YMCA competed for Division III Principia College in St. Louis, where she was an Academic All-American. Ashley graduated from Principia in 1994 and later returned to coach there nine years later. A Masters athlete in the sport, Ashley recently qualified for her fourth straight U.S. Masters Spring National Championship and will compete in six events from Thursday, April 23 through Sunday, April 26 in San Antonio, Texas—including being seeded first in the 1,000- and 1,650-yard freestyles for her women’s 40-44 age group.
“I’ve just always enjoyed the aquatic environment and it’s funny because it was when the new Branford YMCA opened that I started showing up for swimming again,” says Ashley, who’s also competing in the 100, 200, and 500 freestyles, along with the 200 backstroke in Texas. “I also did some open-water swims last year [including capturing the Greenwich mile and two-mile titles, along with the Quassapaug five-mile] and I transformed into a distance swimmer. I’m also inspired by many of the people that show up for nationals and expect top-10 finishes in all of my events.”
As she’s up every morning at five to swim at the Y prior to going to work as a commercial property maintenance manager, Ashley finds that the pool soothes her and gives the energy to deal with those daily stresses away from the sport.
“There really is an exhilaration that comes from exhausting yourself and I feel that you have more energy from a workout to handle your day,” says Ashley, who has also swam at Y and Junior Nationals. “Swimming bolsters my courage with my job; it’s a lot of fun. There is a quiet, underlying confidence that comes from it. The people that I train with at the YMCA, we are all really committed to showing up every day and cheering each other on.”
Fellow national qualifier Jen Brooks Crozier says that Ashley is a great training partner who pushes her to strive toward that next level.
“It’s been great training with Ashley as she is inspiring, positive, and hard-working. It’s because of her that I choose to get up and swim with her early at 5 a.m.,” says Brooks Crozier. “It’s gratifying and fun to go to the highest level and she has motivated me and been incredibly inspiring. I am confident in her at nationals and will cheer her on.”
The waters have opened up many channels of relationships for Ashley throughout different periods of her swimming career. As she gets ready to head to nationals one more time, Ashley feels thankful for the impact that each and every one of them have had on her from both a personal and competitive standpoint.
“Some of my oldest friends and deepest friendships are because of swimming. Right and left, I’ve been finding people from swimming experiences on Facebook. It’s awesome to experience that on all levels,” says Ashley. “I am planning on swimming the 1,000 versus someone I used to coach and it’s really exciting to me. There isn’t a place I can’t go where I don’t know someone from swimming.”