Gold and Black is a multi-platform media company that covers Purdue athletics like no one else.
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/405025
ILLUSTRATED VOLUME 25, ISSUE 2 129 f and communicating and understanding." Dias had to realize that to be successful, it was going to take more than his talent. Training was all-encom- passing, from his time in the pool to his time out of it. Nutrition matters, proper sleep, stretching. "Everything you do out of the pool is important," he said. "… And in practice, (it's) just really thinking about what you're doing, instead of just going through the mo- tions, you're really thinking about 'What can I do to make myself better today, even if I'm having a terrible practice? Let's work on this, always be conscious of what you're doing and not just go through it.'" Dias saw reinforcement for his changed ways this summer, when he was selected to represent Team Can- ada at the Pan Pacific Championships in Australia in August, just before the start of the school year at Purdue. There, he saw the best of the best — swimmers that were as talented as him and more so, but ones that had to put in the extra work to become great on an international level. And now Dias has brought that back to Purdue with him for his senior season. "It was really a good experience for me," he said, "just being surrounded by more professional athletes and see how they do it, stuff like that, it just inspires you even more every time you see that." Dias is already swimming faster, year to date, than last season, a good sign that he could be on point for the Big Ten and NCAA championships in February and March. He'll face a little more challenge from within his own team this season, as Purdue brings in Marat Amalt- dinov, a freshman from Russia who is regarded as a top- 10 swimmer in the 200 breaststroke. They'll both have big aspirations for the end of the sea- son. "There's no reason why those guys can't be 1-2 in the Big Ten, and who knows they could both be in the top- eight at NCAAs and maybe even win and that would be pretty cool," Ross said. "But it's Lyam's senior year and he has a sense of urgency that I haven't seen in him. I see a guy who understands now what it takes to be that good." And Dias is trying to lead a Purdue team that has high goals for the 2014-15 season. The Boilermakers finished fifth at the Big Ten Championships last season and think they could be even higher this year. Of Purdue's eight seniors, seven have finished in the top-eight at the Big Tens before, including four divers and three swimmers. Plus, there are strong competitors in the lower classes, like Amaltdinov, who isn't yet on Purdue's roster for the fall, but becomes eligible for the spring semester. "Everyone is picking us to be seventh or eighth in the Big Ten, but we know that we're much, much, much bet- ter than that," Ross said. "But we're not worried about that. We're worried about making sure we're ready to go for (the Big Tens in) Iowa City at the end of February." Dias is looking forward to that, then the NCAA Cham- pionship on the same Hawkeyes' campus the following month. But he has international goals, as well, looking forward to the Canadian trials for the 2015 World Cham- pionships and Pan American Games. Ross thinks Dias can do well. "I'll tell you this, I've never seen him have a bad big meet," Ross said. "He does not get fazed by a big meet, he expects to win, is going to win, he's going to find a way. If he does that in practice every day, watch out. If he does that every day in practice and says 'Nobody is going to beat me,' then he could make the Olympic team in Canada and maybe even medal. He's a long ways away from doing that — and I'm not saying that to discourage him — but he has the talent to be able to do that. But tal- ent isn't going to do anything, unless you take ownership of it, but that's the thing I see that he's doing." j