Progression is never as clean as people want it to be.

Swimming is the same way and does not always reward straight lines. Careers move forward, stall out and sometimes double back. Some seasons feel obvious, while others feel like waiting, trusting that the work will show itself eventually.

For Colorado State women’s swimming, that understanding has shaped the senior class that is now approaching the end of its collegiate careers.

“They’re the type of people I would want as a neighbor. I would want them in my community. I would hire them in a company.” -Christopher Woodard, CSU swimming head coach

It is a group defined less by a single moment than by how long it took to arrive here.

“I think at least, speaking for myself, I was super excited (for Senior Day),” Lexie Trietley said. “But also I feel like it hasn’t really hit me yet that it’s my last year, just because we’re not done yet, and we still have a lot of season left. So I’m sure conference will be a little bit more emotional.”

Trietley, a senior freestyle swimmer, has been one of the program’s most consistent point scorers across her career. She ranks third in school history in both the 50- and 100-yard freestyle and has earned All-Mountain West honors in the 50-free over three consecutive seasons.

Even so, she said her senior year has not really been about chasing milestones so much as holding off for the Mountain West Championships.

That restraint reflects something the senior class has learned over time more than once.

“Swimming is very up and down,” Trietley said. “From an early age, you learn that it’s not, like, a linear progression. … You do really well; you move up; and then it goes back down. Up and down, up and down.”

Erin Dawson’s illustrious career has followed that same pattern in a different way.

The redshirt senior holds school records in the 200- and 500-yard freestyle and has won three Mountain West titles. She has also navigated injuries, a redshirt season and periods when progress did not immediately translate to results — at least not always right away.

“(Dawson’s career has) been anything but a linear progression,” head coach Christopher Woodard said. “When we first saw her freshman year, we knew that she was fast and she was technically proficient, but she struggled in her races, and we could not figure it out.”

Dawson missed the back half of her freshman season due to injury before returning and steadily growing into one of the most accomplished swimmers in program history.

Woodard said Dawson’s development was never really about a sudden breakthrough, even as she started to take off after her first year in the pool.

“We cautioned our team,” Woodard said. “They kept saying, ‘This is a miracle.’ And I said, ‘No, this is a choice, and Erin makes the right choices every day.’ She makes a choice to eat right. She makes a choice to sleep on a schedule. She makes the choice to be disciplined and work out.’ So for her, it’s a path she created.”

Dawson, who studies neuroscience with a behavioral and cognitive concentration, said the way she wants to be remembered has less to do with records than it does resilience, which she said matters more to her.

“I love all that I have accomplished,” Dawson said. “But (I remember) that I literally came from, like, hardly anything. And, like, knowing that I pushed through it and I worked really hard to get to where I am, I think I’m going to remember that the most. And I think I want to leave a legacy like that rather than, like, what I have accomplished.”

That perspective extends beyond just one swimmer, though.

“I think a lot of people in this class … didn’t start on a lot of money, like me included,” Dawson said. “I swam exhibition my freshman year, and like, I think a lot of people in our class had a lot of grit.”

Woodard said that spirit shows up most clearly late in races and across full seasons of competition.

“They’re a hard-nosed team that doesn’t give in easily,” Woodard said. “They’re not afraid of altitude or different lineups, so for us it’s about being smart, executing cleanly and handling our business so we’re not in a dogfight at the end.”

Leadership is a defining responsibility for upperclassmen, particularly with a large freshman class joining the program this season, which changed the dynamic early.

“Our three main goals this year were accountability, our great culture and then just having high expectations,” Trietley said. “I think we’re doing really well at that, and I think the junior class who’s going to be seniors in the future will lead (the underclassmen) pretty well.”

Woodard pointed to the cyclical nature of leadership among the Rams — something he can facilitate yet not take full credit for.

“I think they’re lucky in some regards that they had great leaders when they were freshmen, and so now that they’re seniors, it’s not lost on them,” Woodard said. “So I think their guidance of the freshmen has been, yeah, it’s been inspiring to me.”

That leadership seemed to extend beyond competition, and the women’s quality of character showed up even when coaches weren’t looking. This fall, CSU swimming posted a 3.67 team GPA, the highest among its MW peers and well above the benchmark the team set for itself.

“We recruit nerds,” Woodard said. “I love nerds.”

For Woodard, the balance between athletics and academics speaks to how the seniors approach life beyond graduation.

“They’re the type of people I would want as a neighbor,” Woodard said. “I would want them in my community. I would hire them in a company. I would want them as my next-door neighbor.”

As the end approaches, Dawson said she is unsure when the reality of graduation will fully settle in.

“Honestly, I have no idea,” Dawson said. “I thought I was going to cry today, and I didn’t, so it’s probably going to hit me at, like, a really weird time.”

For now, the focus remains forward. Conference championships still loom. Careers are still unfolding. And for a senior class shaped by nonlinearity, the uncertainty seems familiar.

But maybe progress was never supposed to be efficient.

Reach Michael Hovey at sports@collegian.com or on social media @michaelfhovey.

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