Madden Shines In and Out of Pool
By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com
CHARLOTTESVILLE – Put aside for a moment Paige Madden’s prowess in the pool. That’s only part of what makes her so special, says Todd DeSorbo, head coach of the University of Virginia’s swimming & diving programs.
“She’s the type of person that could be the NCAA Woman of the Year,” DeSorbo said.
That award is presented each year in Division I to a graduating senior who best combines academic achievement, athletic excellence, community service and leadership. Madden is only a sophomore at UVA, but she’s already distinguished herself on Grounds.
“She’s a great athlete, she’s a great student, she’s a great person,” said DeSorbo, who’s in his second year at the University. “One major goal for our program is to have an NCAA Woman of the Year finalist every year, and I think Paige could potentially be the first one for our staff.”
Madden is active in several organizations at UVA, including the Encore Club, Student-Athlete Mentors, and Student-Athletes Committed to Honor and Leadership.
The Encore Club, of which Madden’s teammate Anna Dickinson is president, supports the Hospice of the Piedmont. Members of the Encore Club recently visited with residents at Mountainside Senior Living in Crozet, and the club raises money for Hospice of the Piedmont and programs such as Busy Blankets, which helps Alzheimer’s patients.
“It’s just something I’m interested in,” Madden said of volunteering to assist senior citizens.
Madden, who was born in Jackson, Miss., moved with her family to Mobile, Ala., the birthplace of Mardi Gras, when she was 3 years old. Hurricane Katrina hit Mobile in August 2005, when Madden was 6.
“I barely remember anything about it,” Madden said. “The main thing I remember is losing power and not being able to sleep in my room.”
Alabama traditionally has not been fertile recruiting territory for UVA athletics, and many other states have higher profiles in swimming. But Madden was an exceptional prospect.
She starred not only for her school, UMS-Wright, but for her club, the City of Mobile Swim Association. A seven-time National Interscholastic Swimming Coaches Association high school All-American, she competed at the U.S. Olympics Trials in 2016.
DeSorbo, who was NC State’s associate head coach before coming to UVA, tried unsuccessfully to interest Madden in the Wolfpack. She visited three schools: Georgia, Texas A&M and Virginia, whose roster included two swimmers Madden knew from meets in Florida and Alabama: Megan Moroney and Cece Williams. Moreover, Madden and Moroney had swum for the U.S. team that competed at the Irish Open championships in Dublin in 2015.
Madden committed to UVA in October 2016.
“It was pretty close between Georgia and Virginia,” she recalled, “but I think it’s kind of one of those things where when you know, you know, and that’s how it was with Virginia.”
Early in the recruiting process, Madden said, the “only thing I knew about UVA was what I’d heard from Cece and Megan. I think I was a little naïve about how good of a school it was until I started really looking at it, and then I was like, ‘Wow, this is actually a really challenging academic environment.’ So that was a draw for me.”
Madden arrived in Charlottesville around the same time DeSorbo did in the summer of 2017. DeSorbo succeeded Augie Busch, who’d left to become head coach at Arizona.
For the Cavaliers’ new coaches, “I think it was probably easier for us to connect with the freshmen [that year], if it was easy at all, because they hadn’t been coached by the prior staff, even though they had been recruited by them,” DeSorbo said.
“With most of our kids on the team, they chose Virginia first and foremost because it’s the University of Virginia, and then swimming and the coaching staff and the team is kind of the second priority.”
That was true for Madden, whose brother swam at Alabama. The unexpected coaching change at UVA “was weird at the time,” she said, “but now that I look back and think about it, I think it worked out perfectly. I committed to the school and the team and not to the coaches. It just happened that we had to go through that change, and I think change was for the better.”
As a freshman in 2017-18, she won the ACC title in the 200-yard backstroke. She competed at last year’s NCAA championships in three events, finishing 17th in the 200 backstroke, 26th in the 200 freestyle, and 51st in the 500 freestyle.
“It was very stressful,” Madden said of her first NCAA meet, which was held in Columbus, Ohio. “I got the stomach bug about two weeks before, so I was recovering from that, and I think I put a lot of pressure on myself to perform well. I didn’t meet those expectations, and I think that’s what got to me, the anxiety and the pressure.
“But the meet did get better with each swim. I think I just freaked out a little bit [at the start].”
This year’s NCAA women’s championships run Wednesday through Saturday in Austin, Texas. Madden will compete in four events: the 200 freestyle, 200 backstroke, 500 freestyle and the 800 freestyle relay.
“She’s got the potential to be an All-American in all of those swims,” DeSorbo said.
At the ACC championships last month in Greensboro, N.C., Madden placed second in the 200 freestyle, second in the 500 freestyle, and fourth in the 200 backstroke. She teamed with Moroney, Morgan Hill and Eryn Eddy to help the Wahoos win the 800 freestyle relay in 6 minutes, 55.22 seconds, a meet record.
“She’s definitely talented, and along with that she’s developed here at a pretty quick rate,” DeSorbo said. “She works really, really hard.”
The ‘Hoos finished ninth at last year’s NCAA championships. They qualified 14 swimmers for this year’s meet, a total surpassed only by Stanford (18).
“I feel pretty good,” DeSorbo said. “I feel better about NCAAs than I did three weeks ago, and I feel significantly better about it than I did the beginning of the season.”
Of the Cavaliers’ 14 swimmers, only two are seniors: Eddy and Vivian Tafuto.
“I think we’re seeded to be top-12,” DeSorbo said. “I would be happy with a top-12 finish. I would be ecstatic with a top-10. If we happen to match what we did last year and get ninth, that’d be great, knowing what we graduated last year. But they’re in a good place. Again, it’s a young group, but they’re pretty excited and ready to go.”
Madden gained valuable experience last summer at the Phillips 66 National Championships in Irvine, Calif., where she placed eighth in the 200-meter freestyle. Among those finishing ahead of her were five-time Olympic gold medalist Katie Ledecky (first) and former UVA great Leah Smith (fourth).
Smith, who earned a gold medal and a bronze medal at the Summer Olympics in 2016, won four NCAA titles during her career at UVA. She graduated in 2017, so she didn’t overlap with Madden on Grounds. But Smith hosted Madden on her official visit to the University.
“We knew she would make an amazing addition to the team,” said Smith, who swims professionally and works as a volunteer assistant coach at Arizona.
“Even though I knew I would not get to compete with her, I felt like Paige would carry on the team’s amazing legacy in her years at UVA,” Smith said. “I could tell right away after meeting her that she was an incredibly sweet girl and a hard worker. We knew she would be such a team player, because she could not wait to get started at UVA and be part of the team. It was so awesome to see her do so well last year at ACCs and NCAAs. It was even more awesome to watch her make the final of the 200 freestyle at USA swimming nationals, where we got to race together … I know there are only great things for her on the horizon.”
Madden, a kinesiology major in UVA’s Curry School of Education, plans to become a physician assistant. She comes by her interest in health care naturally. Her father is a family practice physician, “and pretty much all my cousins and my uncle are in medicine,” said Madden, who lives with teammates Kyla Valls, Abby Richter and Marcella Maguire.
The time demands on a college swimmer are considerable, and Madden’s schedule doesn’t include much free time. That’s OK with her.
“I just love challenges,” Madden said. “I’m not the kind of person who can just sit still. I like to be productive. I can’t just sit still and relax. I always like to be challenged, whether it’s academically or athletically.”