Stephanie Nasson peers down her lane, grips the starting block with her toes, then leaps into the air, making it look like she’s covering nearly half the length of the pool with her dive. The cocaptain of the women’s swim team—and one of the best swimmers in the NCAA—can finish the 1,650-yard freestyle event in 16:17.71, a feat that earned her a record at the 2014 NCAA Championships.

“Swimming is odd in that when you’re younger—I don’t want to say it takes over your life—but it becomes a priority really fast,” says Nasson (SAR’16). “The time commitment alone means there’s not much time for anything else. And the way you train, it’s an endurance sport, so it takes a lot of time. My whole life revolves around it.”

That endurance training has made Nasson a powerhouse in the water. She was the first female swimmer from BU to qualify for the NCAA Championships since 1988, and last August she made the Patriot League 25th Anniversary Team. In summer 2016, she will compete at the 2016 Olympic trials in Omaha, Nebr.

Nasson began swimming competitively when she was eight, after being injured in a figure skating accident. The Wrentham, Mass., native swam competitively in high school, and among other honors, was a three-time Massachusetts state champion in the 500 freestyle, a three-time USA Swimming Scholastic All-American, a three-time Boston Globe and Boston Herald All-Scholastic, and two-time qualifier for USA Swimming Nationals.

At BU, Nasson is a leader on the team. The men and women Terriers compete separately, but swim under the same coaches and practice at the same time, so when Nasson refers to her “team” she means both men and women. “I don’t think any other team at BU thinks that way,” she says. “We can train really hard and then get out of the pool and have dinner together, which is really cool. It’s one of my favorite things about the team.”

When she’s not in the water, the health sciences major is busy interning and researching tracheostomy care in the pulmonary department at Boston Children’s Hospital. She says she wants to be either a physician’s assistant or a nurse practitioner.

Nasson will close out her college career this summer at the 2016 US Olympic team trials, where she will be joined by teammate Garrett Chin (CGS’16). She competed in the 2012 Olympic trials, missed making the team by less than half a second, and finally made it to this summer’s trials early sophomore year. “I was in archaeology class and the news came over Twitter,” she remembers. “I’m very excited for this summer. My family will come, my friends will come, and it will be my last meet. It might be a good way to end a good career.”