A Few Moments with…Tom O’Neill – Ohio State Buckeyes
12/8/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Swim & Dive
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Tom O’Neill has had an outstanding start to his senior season. The finance major from Malverne, N.Y., has three wins to his credit already, including an impressive two-win meet against Miami at the McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion Nov. 12 when he won the 1,000 freestyle and came back about an hour later and won the 500. Tom wasn’t done swimming after the 500, though. He came back a short time later to swim the 500 against Tennessee to complete a 1.1 mile competitive day. Tom also has a win this year at the Miami Invitational in the 400 individual medley. OhioStateBuckeyes.com spent a few moments recently with Tom O’Neill and learned he is a serious and determined young man in addition to being a fine student-athlete.
One of the most exciting moments this year was the intensity at the Tennessee meet. Most of the guys didn’t think that it would come down to a two-point win, but it was a nice win. We usually don’t have that many tough dual meets early in the season. Michigan usually is tough but that’s at the end of the season. It was nice to have a meet this challenging during the Fall.
My perception of Bill [Wadley] has changed every year. I now have a better understanding of who he is. It’s nice to connect with him as a senior. He is obviously a good coach. He’s into affecting people in a positive way, trying to get the most out of you.
Chris [Peters] is awesome. I was kind of nervous – with him being my third assistant coach – that we wouldn’t be able to connect, but Chris is down to earth and really easy to connect with. He’s a real player’s coach which makes it easy to relate to certain situations at practices and meets.
I really enjoy being a student-athlete at Ohio State. I don’t know what life at school would be like if I wasn’t a student athlete. I can’t see myself as one of the “normies.” It’s enjoyable and it’s not for everybody. Some can’t understand waking up at 5 in the morning, but it helps to have a sense of identity.
In high school I really looked up to Mark Neiman, who graduated last year. He’s from New Jersey and I’m from New York and we used to swim at a bunch of meets together. He had a breakout senior year and he mentioned he was going to Ohio State.
I was looking for a team that was on the rise and would get better every year plus have a chance to win Big Ten titles. On my recruiting trip I felt a really strong connection with the team, whereas I didn’t feel that anywhere else.
I’m a finance major. I do think about what I want to do when swimming is over. I’m probably going to go to grad school, then look for a job and basically see what comes my way. It’s hard to get internships when you are swimming year-round, plus it’s hard to figure out what I like in the business field when I’ve only taken classes for it, but I’ll continue to see what I may like.
The trendy thing on campus this year is the Dougie, which I’m pretty good at.
My advice to the younger guys on the team is to enjoy it while you can, and make the most of the meets you’re in.
I’m pretty close with my family. Both of my parents are from Long Island and both are teachers. I have one brother (Brian) who is a freshman at FIT, an art school in the city. My Dad (Thomas) swam in college and played water polo at St. Francis, and my Mom (Betsy) played basketball there, and they’ve been real supportive of my swimming. They’ve never been the crazy swim parents that would scream from the stands, which helps because you see kids burn out more from their parents being the hardest on them. I was always harder on myself .
I thought I was winning the 500 against Miami, then I picked up my head and saw John [Vigar] ahead of me, so then I just kicked it into next gear and beat him at the wall.
There was a possibility I was going to swim the 1000 and the 500 in the first meet as well as the 1000 and the 500 in the second meet. I just prepared myself mentally to do it and just gave it all I had even though I didn’t score in the 500 [against Tennessee].
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