For the first time in A-Lisa Miles’ life, she hated swimming. It was last spring during her freshman year at Ohio State.

“I can’t remember my life without swimming,” Miles said. “I love it so much. It scares me how close I was to quitting last spring.”

She said she moved from Newport, Minn., suburb of Minneapolis, because she wanted to swim at one of the largest universities in the nation.

She said last year was full of some major complications. She broke her wrist in a biking accident at the beginning of October, but the problems started when it went undiagnosed until three weeks later.

“It was still swelling up for a couple weeks after the accident happened, but the athletic trainer kept on telling me it was just a bad sprain,” Miles said. “It was not until I went to a wrist specialist that I found out it was broken.”

She had a cast up past her elbow for a month, then one past her wrist for another month and finally a splint for the third month of the healing process.

She said her coach allowed her to kick during the workouts with her cast on, but it was not substantial enough of a workout to prepare her for her final meet of the season.

“By the time the final meet of the season came around, I figured that I had nothing to lose,” Miles said. “It was weird because I got some personal best times. Now I wonder what I could have done with a full and consistent year of training behind me.”

She explained that earlier in the season she had done some personal best times in most of her events.

“I really don’t like to blame it on my coach at OSU, but I just could not see myself swimming there for another three years,” Miles said. “I did not feel comfortable with my former coach and that killed my love for the sport.”

Miles is joining the Cyclone swimming family with her club coach from the South East Metro Sharks Swim Club (SEMS) in Minneapolis, Minn., Duane Sorenson. Sorenson is in his first season as ISU women’s head swim coach.

“I met A-Lisa when she started to swim on my swim club when she was eight years old,” said Sorenson. “I started to coach her when she was 11 years old.”

Sorenson explained she is a very intense person in workout but loves to have fun.

He said Miles is always joking around at the pool. Sorenson remembers Miles playing jokes on people even when she was younger. He said she would play practical jokes on the coaches from other club teams by swiping their briefcases and hiding them around the pool at meets.

Miles says it is more fun and more comfortable being coached by Sorenson.

“Duane knows that I am playing around. He does not get mad, he just laughs with me,” she said.

“I think A-Lisa did not have fun last year in swimming,” said Sorenson. “She liked Ohio State well enough, but there was no consistency with how situations were handled with her old team.”

Sorenson said Miles is a very versatile swimmer, which will help ISU during the season and at the Big 12 Conference meet. He said the conference has gotten much stronger than last year. He said Miles has six strong races that she could be competitive in at the Big 12 competition.

“I think she could final in the 200 I.M. (individual medley) and 200 fly,” said Sorenson. “It just depends on how the conference shapes up.”

Miles’ main goal is still to have fun and make swimming pleasurable rather than a job. But, in the back of her mind, she is looking to the future.

“To make it to the Olympic Trials in 2000 would be the greatest accomplishment in the world,” Miles said. “I figured it would work with Duane, and if it did not, I’d know it was time to quit and be finished.”

And from what Sorenson says, Olympic Trials are a strong possibility in Miles’ future.