With the NCAA Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships officially in the rearview mirror, so is the collegiate career of one of Texas Women’s swimming and diving’s most valuable members in recent history.
Graduate student Emma Sticklen didn’t just meet expectations in the pool; she exceeded them and set an example for those around her while doing so. She is a two-time National Champion and NCAA record holder in the 200-yard fly, as well as a Texas record holder in the 100-fly, 200-fly, 200-medley relay, 400-medley relay and 200-free relay.
Winning three Big 12 Individual Champion titles throughout her tenure with the program, Sticklen led this year’s team to its first Southeastern Conference Championship in its inaugural year in the conference.
“Historically, (the SEC has) been the fastest conference to me, and I was really excited to go out there and show everyone what I got, if you will,” Sticklen said.
Since the beginning of her career at Texas, Sticklen has shown everything she has to offer. She earned her first All-American recognition her freshman year in the 200-fly, and she would go on to accumulate 15 more All-American titles in her following seasons.
Most recently, she capped off her collegiate career at the NCAA Championships, smashing the previous NCAA record in the 200-fly to help lead her team to a third-place finish in the championships.
“That was a really, really tough barrier to break, and I’ve been chasing it all year,” Sticklen said following her 200-fly victory.
Sticklen, however, has not just focused on chasing records in the pool during her Texas career. She has also made a strong effort to train the next generation of swimmers and give back to the Austin community. In February, she was named to the SEC community service team. This annual acknowledgment highlights one athlete in each sport from each SEC school who has given back to the community.
Sticklen received the honor largely due to the swim clinics she runs for aquatics clubs around Texas when she isn’t training.
“I’ve seen my impact a lot when I do swim clinics, just with the younger kids in the next generation of swimmers,” Sticklen said. “So it feels nice … that other people recognize that I was doing that, even though I wasn’t doing it for that reason.”
Sticklen runs the clinics completely on her own. This includes everything from planning the swimming drills to finding local club teams on Instagram or LinkedIn to reach out to initially.
“Yeah, it’s pretty much all me, which I’m very proud to say,” she said.
Each of the clinics includes a 20-minute talk from Sticklen about the mental side of swimming, followed by a 40-minute coaching session, mostly focused on her signature event, the butterfly.
A member of the College Sports Communicators Academic All-American First Team in her 2023-24 season and a two-time Academic All-Big 12 First Team member, Sticklen’s academics are something she has consistently made time for throughout her college experience.
Although she will be missed both in the pool and the classroom, Sticklen’s Longhorn experience and her devotion to bettering the community have equipped her with the tools needed to embrace life beyond the Forty Acres.
