The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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AUGUST 2018 THE WOLVERINE 77 BY JOHN BORTON O lympic silver medalist swimmer Connor Jaeger chose Michigan because he desired a university that pushed him to reach for the skies. He's still doing so, in a very differ- ent way. The three-time NCAA champion, 10-time All-American and two-time Olympian helps produce skyscrapers these days. He's back in his native New Jersey, working for the City Liv- ing Division of luxury home devel- oper Toll Brothers. While 90 percent of the company focuses on single-family homes (in- cluding some in Ann Arbor), the City Living Division develops high-rise projects in major cities. Jaeger serves on a pre-construction team, helping put together budgets for potential jobs, working with an acquisitions unit, etc. The mechanical engineering major is just getting his feet wet in his new endeavor. "There's so much to learn that goes into a building," he said. "Luckily, I'm surrounded by people who have been doing it much longer than I have. "I have some great people to learn from." That's the situation he desired when first coming out of Fair Haven, N.J. The prep star didn't want to be the biggest fish in a small pond right away. At Michigan, he certainly was not, Jaeger pointed out. "I wanted to go to a place where I wouldn't be the best swimmer on the team," Jaeger said. "If anything, I chose the opposite, coming to Michi- gan. It was such a strong and domi- nant group that year, a top-10 team in the NCAA. "I wanted to be pushed. That really ended up being the team's mission. I happened to walk into a place where the team had a mission of wanting to be well rounded, whether it be athlet- ics, academics or community service. "That ended up being perfect for me. The culture — I don't think I could have asked for anything better." It's not that Jaeger didn't have any- thing to offer as a Michigan fresh- man. To the contrary, he participated on an 800-yard freestyle relay squad that won a Big Ten championship in 2011. He also finished 27th in the 200- yard freestyle and 32nd in the 200- yard butterfly at the NCAA meet, after which came a conversation that altered his athletic career. Head coach Mike Bottom ap- proached him after the season, in- forming him of a move from the shorter events to the distance com- petitions, including the mile. "I got switched into swimming the mile, and I had never swam the mile," Jaeger noted. "That ended up being my best event." Again, he didn't have to worry about getting pushed toward great- ness. Two of his Michigan teammates were top-eight milers, nationally, his freshman season. Jaeger noted his initial goal wasn't even to stay with them. It centered on just trying to keep up with the workouts they performed to prepare to swim the mile. He embraced the training, making the outcome far more predictable. "I always loved it," Jaeger said. "Waking up early in the morning, you're tired. It definitely takes some self-motivation, but when you're sur- rounded by your friends and your team like that. … All of us really had fun getting down there. Those were great times." Eventually, he began catching up to the nationally elite on his own squad. "First, it was try to keep up with them," Jaeger recalled. "Then it was try to beat them occasionally in prac- tice. Being with them, two estab- lished swimmers, gave me a lot of confidence going forward." So much so that Jaeger won the Big Ten championship in the mile as a sophomore in 2012, leading a one-two-three finish by Michigan swimmers in the event. He went on to finish third at the NCAA Cham- pionships in the mile, becoming an All-American with the fifth fastest time in U-M history (14:35.14). He made the U.S. National Team in the 1,500-meter freestyle that sum- mer and placed sixth in the event at the 2012 London Olympics. The Wolverines' overall effort got a lot of people — Jaeger included — thinking about what could be accom- plished the following season. It was time for him and other developing veterans to push, lead and conquer. "The mission became a little more of, how can I make the other people around me better," Jaeger mused. "A lot of us, that year, started to look WHERE ARE THEY NOW? Former U-M Swimmer Connor Jaeger Is Reaching For New Heights Jaeger was a three-time NCAA champion and 10-time All-American during his time at U-M, and also went on to be a two-time Olympian. PHOTO COURTESY MICHIGAN PHOTOGRAPHY Jaeger on his time at U-M "I wanted to be pushed. That really ended up being the team's mission. I happened to walk into a place where the team had a mission of wanting to be well rounded, whether it be athletics, aca- demics or community service. That ended up being perfect for me. The culture — I don't think I could have asked for anything better."