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18 ◆ CAVALIER CORNER BY GREG WATERS W HEN LEAH SMITH DECIDED to swim for the University of Virginia, she was drawn to a program on the rise and one that had built a legacy among ACC schools. "When you come to UVA, you learn all about the history of the team, about the leg- acy," she told Cavalier Corner last year. "It's so important to us that each member knows that they have a duty to uphold that legacy." Smith can check holding up the UVA leg- acy off her to-do list. Her list of accomplishments are extensive, but here are some highlights: Smith was a 2016 Olympic gold and bronze medalist, a three-time world champion, a four-time World Championship medalist, an Ameri- can record holder in the 800-meter freestyle, made the United States National Team ros- ter all four years at UVA, was a four-time individual NCAA champion (the most by a Virginia student-athlete), earned first-team All-America laurels 13 times, was the 2014 ACC Freshman of the Year, claimed 13 ACC championships and earned All-ACC honors 16 times. Smith leaves Virginia with her own legacy as the ACC and UVA record holder in 500-, 1,000- and 1,650-meter freestyle, and second all time in the 200-meter freestyle. She was honored as Virginia's top female athlete the last two seasons. "There were a lot of things I wanted to accomplish at Virginia," Smith said. "When I committed, I was really excited that UVA was a team on the rise and right away I wanted to be a contributor. I got to do that. There were things as a team that we didn't accomplish, but shooting for really high goals allowed us to achieve some things that were still pretty cool." Smith led the Hoos to three ACC titles (2014-16) and back-to-back top-five finishes in the NCAA Championships (2015-16). "I'll cherish everything that I went through with the team," she said. "I'm very fortunate to have been given the opportunity to try to achieve big things with this team." Smith said competing in the 2016 Olym- pics in Rio de Janiero was surreal. "The Olympics were awesome," she noted. "It's been a year, but it doesn't seem that long. A lot of hard work went into it and it lived up to the expectation. It really fueled me for 2017 and I think that's why I'm performing really well because of that experience." Her experience at UVA set her up for suc- cess in international competition. "Even though the NCAAs don't have all of the world's best swimmers, the United States is the best at swimming and that makes the NCAAs an unreal meet," she said. "I think that prepared me really well for the Olympics because I was racing really fast people all the time, at dual meets during the year and at championship meets." The Pittsburgh native plans to return to the 2020 Games in Tokyo. A big takeaway for Smith coming out of Rio was realizing she needed to take some time away from the pool after the intensity of the NCAA Championships and the Olympics. "After Rio, I learned I did need to take a long break to decompress and to figure out what my goals were for the next season," she said. "I took about a month off from swim- ming and it felt really great to take that much time off. I couldn't just get right back into it." She never took more than two weeks off while at Virginia. "During my first year the only break I got was two weeks in August and my second year I took a week off after NCAAs and then a one-week August break," Smith said. Time continues to be at a premium for Smith. With the World Championships at Budapest, Hungary, in late July there's little of it for anything else. "I realize that there's just not that much time with swimming," Smith noted. "Three days a week my schedule is swim for two hours, go home for an hour, lift for an hour, go home for two hours, swim for two hours and then go to bed." Asked if she planned to make changes in her regimen in preparation for the 2020 Olympics, Smith feels comfortable where things are. "I'm staying at UVA to swim and I don't think prep will change very much," she said. "Now that I'm out of college there are dis- tractions that I won't have to worry about any more. "I can be in my own routine even though I'm still practicing with a college team. I'm excited that I won't have classes so I can figure out what I want to do with my day. I can control my training environment and do stuff outside of the pool that I haven't got to do before." ◆ BEST OF THE REST Tara Vittese, field hockey — She was named the 2016 National Player of the Year, her second straight year claiming the honor. She was also named the ACC Offensive Player of the Year. She helped the Cavaliers claim their first ACC title and advance to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Alexis Shaffer, soccer — She was taken with the 25th overall pick of the 2017 National Women's Soccer League draft. She paced the Cavaliers with a team-leading 13 goals, seven assists and 32 points. She earned All-America and All-ACC first-team honors while being named the ACC Offensive Player of the Year. Maggie Jackson, lacrosse — She was named the Virginia Sports Information Direc- tor's Women's Lacrosse Player of the Year. She led UVA with 74 points (41 goals and 33 as- sists). An IWLCA second-team All-American, Jackson was the only player in the ACC this season to lead her team in points, ground balls, draw controls and caused turnovers. — Greg Waters LEAVING A LEGACY Swimmer Leah Smith Departs UVA As One Of It's Greats FEMALE ATHLETE OF THE YEAR LEAHSMITH