Princeton University Athletics
Players Mentioned
Captain's Corner: Swimming's Courtney Kilkuts
February 23, 2010 | Women's Swimming and Diving
Princeton senior Courtney Kilkuts is a multiple-time Ivy League individual champion and a leader on two of the Tigers' team champions. She has broken program records and qualified for NCAAs, and she has done it in the shadows of a more-famous teammate.
You may not know Courtney Kilkuts.
But you should.
A standout swimmer from Santiago High in Corona, Calif., Kilkuts was the kind of recruit that makes or breaks an Ivy League class. Maybe any other year, for any other team, Kilkuts would have been the kind of newcomer that shifts the balance in the Ivy League. That's what happens when you earn multiple All-America honors and win CIF championships.
But Kilkuts came to Princeton the same year that Alicia Aemisegger did, and Aemisegger is completing a career that stands up against any female student-athlete to ever compete in Orange and Black.
So maybe you don't know Kilkuts, but her teammates and coaches sure do. They've know her since she first stepped foot on campus and helped build a pair of Ivy League champions. In the first night of her first conference meet, Kilkuts won the 200 IM. That would be a feeling she'd experience again; of her four Ivy League individual championships, three have been in the 200 IM. On this Thursday night, she will be looking for a career sweep in an event that demands both talent and work ethic; mastering one stroke is one thing; consistently mastering all four is another story.
As a sophomore, Kilkuts added to her resumé by breaking the Princeton 200 IM record (a mark later broken by Aemisegger) and qualifying for the 2008 NCAA championships. She was one of seven Tigers who competed at nationals that year, an incredible number for a non-scholarship program.
Voted a co-captain for this senior season, Kilkuts has been a steady winner once again. She enters Ivies with the top league time in the 100 breast, the third-best time in the 200 and the second-best time in the 200 IM. At the HYP meet last month, Kilkuts won the 200 IM and the 100 breast; in the latter, she broke an 18-year-old program record by Carwai Seko by going 1:02.03.
Now Kilkuts is looking to end her career with a third-straight Ivy League title, as the Tigers join the rest of the league at Harvard's Blodgett Pool this weekend for the 2010 championships. Winning one more title would be an exclamation point on a brilliant four years, even if those have been far too quiet for a swimmer whose credentials are nearly unmatched.