Big Fish in a Small Pond: Indiana Transfer Aislinn Holder Thriving at Akron

Two years ago, Aislinn Holder was a small fish in a big pond at Indiana University.

She spent her freshman year as an exhibition swimmer with the Hoosiers, posting personal-best times in the 50 free, 100 free, and 100 fly at her first Big Ten Championships in 2022. Holder continued to build momentum that summer, setting lifetime bests in three long-course events at the Indiana Senior LCM Championships (50 free, 50 fly, and 100 fly).

Holder was aiming to earn a spot on Indiana’s travel team for the first road meet of the 2022-23 season against Texas A&M and Texas in Austin, a couple hours from her hometown of Cypress. So when she learned she didn’t make the cut as a sophomore despite her improvements, she was crushed. It forced her to reevaluate what exactly she wanted out of her college swimming experience as she realized just how much she cared about contributing to her team’s success.

Now a big fish in a smaller pond after transferring to Akron University last year, Holder has fit right into head coach Brian Peresie‘s mid-major powerhouse. The Zips have qualified nine swimmers for the NCAA Championships over the past three seasons, the most among mid-major programs.

Holder didn’t qualify for NCAAs as a junior, but she still achieved some major breakthroughs in the month of March. After placing placed 6th in 100 free (personal-best 49.85) and 100 fly (personal-best 53.46) at the Mid-American Conference (MAC) Championships in late February, she attended the CSCAA National Invitational Championship a couple weeks later in Ocala, Florida.

Holder was warming down after her 50 fly prelims swim at CSCAAs when Peresie noticed her kick was too big and experimented with a new tweak to fix it. She thought it felt weird because she had never practiced it before, but her trust paid off with a new best time in the final.

The next night, Holder dropped almost half a second in the 100 fly (52.99), dipping under 53 seconds for the first time en route to the CSCAA title. She celebrating by pointing at Peresie, who pointed back at her and mouthed, I told you.

“I always felt like I had more to give,” said Holder, whose best time last season was just 55.16. “I just didn’t know what I was missing.”

Akron finished 2nd at the CSCAA National Invitational Championships as a team with 588.5 points, behind TCU (619) and ahead of Kentucky (552). Peresie was named Coach of the Year at the meet.

“(Peresie) really takes the time to watch videos because we have underwater cameras in practice,” she added. “He watches our races. He videos every single race. So he really cares about every detail he can find. And sometimes they’re crazy ideas, but they work.”

Head coach Brian Peresie has won nine MAC Coach of the Year honors in his 11 seasons at Akron.

At the end of the weekend at CSCAAs, she competed in Sunday’s LCM time trials for the 100 fly with her first U.S. Olympic Trials cut in sight. Holder knocked more than a second off her lifetime best from 2022 with a 1:00.25 during her first long-course swim of the season, just a blink off the Trials standard of 1:00.19. As soon as she hopped out of the water, Peresie went into manager mode: “We’re doing it again.”

Peresie immediately flooded Holder with electrolyte salt and Gatorade, gave her instructions on warming down, and contacted the team’s massage therapist.

“He was telling me I need to lay there for like 20 minutes with my eyes closed and visualize,” Holder said. “And then he was also playing pump-up music off of his phone to get me excited and making some goofy remarks like, ‘If you sit in the sun for just a little bit, that sun’s going to give you energy and you’re going to use the power of the sun.’ That confidence boost is everything, and he does that for everyone on this team.”

Holder returned to the pool just about an hour later and blasted a personal-best 59.83 to hit her first Olympic Trials cut after six years of pursuing that goal — ever since she went 1:03.37 at the 2018 Austin Sectionals after her freshman year of high school at Cypress Fairbanks. Her parents flew out from Texas to witness the accomplishment, which sent her bursting into tears of joy after seeing her time.

Holder celebrates with her Akron teammates after her first Olympic Trials cut at CSCAAs last month.

“All my teammates were behind the blocks watching that race and they were screaming the whole time,” Holder recalled. “I had amazing support from my team during that race. So to see them at the end of the pool on both ends and then Brian walked down and back the whole way of that race cheering as I swam the whole 100 — it was so rewarding. I was so glad I got it, especially with this team because I felt like they played a huge role in that.”

“That is the BP effect.”

BP, of course, is short for Brian Peresie, who has captured 10 MAC crowns in 11 seasons at the helm of Akron’s women-only program. He has coached 30 NCAA qualifiers during that time, including three this year — Abby Daniel, Madelyn Gatrall, and Weronika Gorecka — second-most among mid-major programs behind Princeton (five). Daniel placed 16th in both the 200 IM and 100 fly while Gorecka added a 14th-place showing in the 200 back.

Holder feels right at home with the Zips as she wraps up her junior year. Asked what advice she’d give to those going through the recruiting process right now, she stressed the importance of knowing they want to get out of their college experience and doing research on rosters.

“It’s all about what experience you want to get out of college,” Holder said. “To be either considered a big fish or a little fish, that’s all up to you. Sometimes you can use those bigger fish to push you and propel you to be a better swimmer. And that’s what I tried to do while I was at Indiana was use those people that were already at the top and use them as my mentors in a way.

“But I guess it’s a personal experience for me that I just wanted something where I was that bigger fish in a little pond, where they only have a women’s team so the team is already cut in half because you don’t have any men,” she continued.” And so then I looked at where I would fall within the roster at Akron and I was like, ‘Would I have a chance at contributing and being part of the travel team?’ And, yes, I was, so it was fabulous and that’s exactly what I wanted.

“So you kind of have to do some research on your teams and who’s on your team and even think about who’s coming in next year, the year after you’re there because that’s an important part as well,” Holder added. “Every college wants to recruit faster than what they already have every year to make their team better or to keep it going strong. So you kind of have to be aware of where you fall in that roster and make sure if you’re okay with being towards the bottom.”