Punch after punch, junior Camryn Linster soundly defeated her first opponent ever in the Midwest Collegiate Boxing Invitational two weeks ago. After only two rounds, the fight was decided as a technical knock out and Linster took home the win.

Linster made quick work of her opponent but that wasn’t a surprise to ISU club boxing coach Jon Swanson. 

“Talent is there, work ethic is there, and the character is there,” Swanson said. “At this point it seems like she’s got the whole package. They stopped her fight in the second round because she was winning so badly.” 

Linster started boxing at the beginning of the school year, but that hasn’t stopped her from becoming one of the better boxers on the club team up to this point. Part of the credit for her swift rise is the fact that she enjoys boxing so much. 

“It’s like pushing my body to the limit to see how far I can go,” Linster said. “It’s a very mental sport too.”

The rest of the credit goes to the amount of training, hard work and dedication she puts in day after day. 

“[She] shows up, works hard, and has a great attitude,” Swanson said. “She’s always willing to do what she has to do to in order to do well.”

Sometimes doing what she has to do goes beyond simply working hard. 

“You have to go into every fight knowing that you could lose and you could get hurt,” Linster said. “But you train your hardest and know that the outcome of that fight is the best that you could have fought.”

It is this mentality that Linster will take to regionals on March 18-19 at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, which is where she will face her next big challenge. Leading up to the fight, she has a few things that she wants to work on in order to become the best fighter that she can be. 

“She already has natural speed,” Swanson said. “Right now we’re working on increasing her hand speed and some other defense things, but once she gets those down I think she’ll be pretty unstoppable. She just needs to keep doing what she’s doing and working hard.”

Linster echoed her coach’s advice.

“I need to work on my defense”, Linster said, “especially with keeping my left hand up, but other than that I just need to have faster punches.”

Swanson has no doubts that she will compete at regionals and that maybe she could even take it to the next level.

“I foresee her doing well at regionals, and I’m willing to bet that she’s going to go to nationals”, Swanson said.

As for Linster, she isn’t really concerned about nationals at this point, since this is only her first year in the program.

However, when looking towards the future, she does keep one ultimate goal in mind.

“I think I have a decent chance but it’s not something I’m really worried about,” Linster said. “I can tell you right now that getting a banner that says national champion with my name on it, that is my ultimate goal.”