Division III Week: Colin Richter, Men's Swimming

Division III Week is a positive opportunity for all individuals associated with Division III to observe and celebrate the impact of athletics and of student-athletes on the campus and surrounding community. In honor of Division III Week, Colin Richter (Cleburne, Texas/Cleburne) speaks about his experience at Goucher.

Colin Richter

Class of 2016

Cleburne, Texas

Undecided major

"The family." That's what Colin Richter says he likes best about Goucher.

He could be speaking literally because his fraternal twin brother is also a first-year student here. Perhaps Richter means the close-knit relationship he has with other members of Goucher's swimming team. But what he ultimately means is the supportive, sociable Goucher community as a whole. 

"I like knowing that I can have a good conversation with anyone on campus," Richter says.

However, when Thomas Till, Goucher's head men's swimming coach, began the recruiting process and sent several e-mails to Richter, the young man says he didn't think much of it at first. He was considering other Division III schools, but he hadn't heard much about Goucher. Then, he says, "I started looking into Goucher deeper and deeper, and I really liked the school. And I especially liked the swim program."

He came to campus and did an overnight stay with a swim student; he got to see the campus and watch the swim team practice. His brother Morgan followed suit, and they both enrolled — in fact, they're teammates and roommates.

"The swim program was definitely a big, big thing that brought me to Goucher," says Richter.

He's been swimming for 10 years and knows that discipline and time management really come with the sport. "The one thing people really don't understand about swimming is the amount of time and work that goes into it," he says.

So while competing at the college level hasn't changed his drive and restraint, Richter says he really has benefitted from the social aspects of being on a team.  

"You always have that friend base," he says. "Coming in you're nervous about getting started and making friends, especially at freshman orientation. It's just awesome to have that group of friends that you can fall back on."

Most of the seven first-year male swimmers live on the same floor of the same dorm, so Richter says they hang out all the time. Fridays and Saturday nights, he and his brother host movie nights so people have an alternative to being in situations where there could be alcohol or other illicit substances. He and his brother don't use either, and "We don't like those influences," he says. 

With his maturity and clarity of purpose, Richter already is proving to be a benefit to the Goucher community he calls family.

For more information on Division III Week, please click here or watch NCAA President Mark Emmert discuss Division III week below.