McKim lives in the water

by Tyler Crandell

Swim, eat, class, eat, swim, eat, homework, sleep. This is a simplified version of freshman Kyle McKim’s average day.

While swimming and schoolwork dominates most of his day, McKim, Boone, Iowa, fills in the rest of his time doing what he likes and needs most: eating and sleeping.

“I really like to eat and I sleep a lot,” McKim said. “If I’m not doing either of those, I might be kicking the soccer ball around with some friends. But I really do eat and sleep a lot.”

When the weather is nice, McKim likes to bike. He has participated in the last few RAGBRAI tours with his dad. And with swimming and biking being some of his favorite activities, triathlons are only natural.

“I have done a couple triathlons,” McKim said. “I would like to do more in the future. I ran out of time this past year, but definitely more in the future.”

With McKim’s active lifestyle, it is clear why two of the things he does most is sleeping and eating.

McKim also likes to watch “The Office” for more of a relaxing activity. Between him and his roommate, they have all of the seasons.

With these activities that McKim tries to fit in, he doesn’t loose focus on what he came to Simpson for other than swimming: his biology major.

“I want to be a biology teacher when I’m done with school,” McKim said. “I really liked my biology classes in high school and I had a really good teacher there, and he was kind of part of the reason in that decision.”

McKim said that right now he is in his athletic training classes for a coaching endorsement, and next semester is when his biology related classes will start.

During this first semester he has been enjoying his early career at Simpson, which he had been pretty much set on throughout high school.

“I really like it here,” McKim said. “I have always wanted to come here during high school. I looked at a few different schools, but really it was always Simpson.”

McKim was also considering playing soccer at Simpson. But a bad ankle injury he suffered during his senior year in high school swayed him to stick with just swimming.

This wasn’t a bad decision considering the success he has already been having. He plans to continue this success with the rest of the swim team as well.

“I know our times should get better as the season goes on,” McKim said. “As a team, our goal is to get all new records on the board. We should be able to do that, we are on the right track.”

McKim and the swim team look to have the most successful season in the young men’s swim team history as they continue to build up the program.