Madisyn Cox has been cutting through the water since she was a little girl. Now as a senior, she’s splashing into the pool at Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center during her final semester as a Longhorn.

“I started swimming when I was three years old,” Cox said. “I started because my sisters actually swam, and I had to go to the pool every day you know to watch them swim … I just got bored of it. So I was like you know what I wanna hop in too, so I started taking lessons and went on my way with it.”

Cox is a three-time All-American, a seven-time Honorable Mention All-American, a 10-time Big 12 champion, the Big 12 swimmer of the year, and is currently ranked the No. 1 200-yard IM swimmer in the nation. While she has achieved so much, there is still one thing she wants to accomplish before she graduates.

“I want a title, a team title that’d be incredible — individual or relay, just anything,” Cox said. “You know I want to go out there and just do the best that I can possibly do.”

While Cox has collected many cherished memories of her time at Texas, she thinks back to two years ago as a moment that stood out in her collegiate career.

“My sophomore year we went up to the Bay Area,” Cox said. “We raced Stanford the first day, Cal the next day, both incredible teams at that time. We were like the underdog team by far… then we came in and upset Stanford, we came in the next day and upset Cal, and it was just an incredible meet.”

Head coach Carol Capitani gave two reasons for how Cox stays so consistent with her impeccable performance.  

“One, she just has a great training environment and a great culture,” Capitani said. “Two, she’s just really competitive, very competitive.”

Cox finds inspiration from those who have swam before her on the 40 Acres. She named a former Longhorn swimmer as being very influential in how she modeled her career. 

“Laura Sogar trained with us for a while,” Cox said. “She was an incredible person, an incredible swimmer, athlete, everything so I really looked up to her. I tried to model what I did after what she was doing.”

With senior day coming this Saturday, Cox remembers last year when she was watching the previous class of seniors experience one of their last home meets.

“I remember even last year, we were at senior day for the seniors and some of the underclassmen were like, ‘this is going to be you next year!,’” Cox said. “And I was like, ‘no way, not even, like that’s so far away.’ It’s hard to believe it’s already here, but it’s gone by quickly and it’s been an incredible ride.”

Just as Sogar was for her, Cox hopes to serve as a role model for those who come after her, even offering up advice for those young aspiring swimmers.

“Just keep working and believe in yourself, believe in your team, believe in your coaches. That’s the big one, and things will come.”