![\"Kaitlyn](\"\/mariner\/issue1-2022\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/05\/reny-photo.jpg\")
Kaitlyn Reny<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Thankfully, the impersonal nature of her visit there stood in stark contrast to her visit to Maine Maritime. Handwritten letters, a vision of the future, emails with photos of work being done on Bok Pool, and a sense of being wanted moved MMA up on her list.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has been cool to be a part of the growth,\u201d says Reny. \u201cTo see the scoreboard and the records go up and share in the vision of what it is now. It\u2019s all rewarding.\u201d
\nHer name is all over the record board, but Reny demurs at the fact.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t wait for the day that my name is not up on the record board,\u201d she says. \u201cI know I am not the fastest swimmer in the pool. If my name is not up there, it means we have moved to the place where I wanted this team to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
She may be humble about the records, but the fact that she is in the pool at all is rather extraordinary.<\/p>\n
Reny suffered from a condition known as Femoroacetabular Impingement, which led to labral tears in both hips.<\/p>\n
The condition required two separate surgeries, one on each side. The first one came during the second semester of her first year and the second over the holiday break of her sophomore year.
\nThe latter surgery cost her a return trip to the NEISDA Championships and required rehab with Athletic Trainer Haley Yager. Long sessions involved painful movements to regain strength and mobility.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe showed up for every rehab session with a smile on her face and put in extra work outside the clinic so that she could get back in the pool as soon as possible,\u201d Yager noted. Despite the long hours of rehab, Reny was at practice every day, sitting on the pool deck and cheering on her teammates.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was difficult at times,\u201d Reny acknowledges, \u201cbut I was a sophomore, and I couldn\u2019t be bitter. I knew I had two more opportunities \u2013 or I thought I did.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has been cool to be a part of the growth,\u201d says Reny. \u201cTo see the scoreboard and the records go up and share in the vision of what it is now.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Then, COVID hit. Suddenly, the swim team was limited to 12 in the pool at a time and was without a competition schedule. As a junior captain, Reny found herself reassuring people that this would not last forever and that they would come out of the challenge stronger. A year later, the team placed second at the first ever North Atlantic Conference championship.<\/p>\n
\u201cSwimming was the release from an otherwise difficult year,\u201d recalls Reny. When the team finally got to be on deck together for a virtual meet, she knew they were still a team despite the social distance. The energy was still there.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll this stuff happened, but I had fun,\u201d she says of the adversity. \u201cI don\u2019t look back and think that this sucked. I just love the sport, and when you love it so much, there is nothing that will stop you from doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n
After taking a left off stage, degree in hand, Reny will make another left at the end of the Castine Road and head south for Virginia. She has applied for jobs at the Virginia Institute for Marine Science, and she has her sights set on shellfish aquaculture. She likes being in the field more than in the lab, something she learned during her internships. She also learned about the value of an MMA education when she recognized how prepared she was relative to her peers.<\/p>\n
It has left Reny facing the unknowns of her future without an ounce of fear. She wouldn\u2019t have it any other way.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs MMA students, we can do anything,\u201d she says. Recent history proves that she sure can.\u2588<\/span><\/p>\n
\u2014By STEPHEN PEED<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Leading By Example<\/p>\n
On the eve of her final New England Intercollegiate Swimming and Diving Association meet, and two months out from graduation, Kaitlyn Reny is busy.<\/p>\n
Reny serves as a senior captain for the first four-year class of swimmers at Maine Maritime Academy and is the Vice President of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. Anyone with her skills and poise would make a gifted leader, but her resilience and disposition towards service make her an exceptional leader. Her head coach, Tony DeMuro, noted it as soon as he met her.<\/p>\n
\u201cKaitlyn\u2019s leadership is not defined by her times or performance,\u201d says DeMuro. \u201cShe offers so much more than that. She believes in the team and actively guides them through every situation. It is not just that she is just willing to help; it\u2019s that she expects to help.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maine Maritime was not initially Reny\u2019s first choice, but when she visited another New England college with both a swim team and a marine biology program, she was handed a sheet of times on paper. She was asked if she had ever swum those times. When she acknowledged that she hadn\u2019t \u2013 yet \u2013 that was the end of the line. That\u2019s a tough setback for anyone, especially when that school had initially been their top choice.<\/p>\n
Thankfully, the impersonal nature of her visit there stood in stark contrast to her visit to Maine Maritime. Handwritten letters, a vision of the future, emails with photos of work being done on Bok Pool, and a sense of being wanted moved MMA up on her list.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has been cool to be a part of the growth,\u201d says Reny.<\/p>\n