Senior Kelly Tannhauser has traveled nearly 5,500 miles from her Seattle high school. Along the way, she earned a swimming scholarship at the University of South Carolina- now she has a spot on the WSU team.

When one thinks about women’s swimming, the names Emma Johansson and Alison Mand might come to mind, but Tannhauser is determined to become the best.

Early in her career, she struggled with the mental aspect of swimming. Then she met a coach from the University of Tennessee, who helped her build mental toughness.

“My coach when I was 10 or 12, he swam at Tennessee with my brother, who’s 12 years older, and he originally had the biggest impact on me,” Tannhauser said. “He taught me the foundation of just being mentally strong, which is (important) in order to swim at this level. You need the mentality.”

Tannhauser said head coach Tom Jager has also contributed to her success by pushing her in the breaststroke, despite previous struggles.

She is the youngest of four siblings. Her older brother, Brett Tannhauser, tallied a number of impressive wins swimming for Tennessee. He was a Southeastern Conference champion and a Washington state high school champion.

“I was only eight when that (winning the SEC championship) happened, so growing up he was a huge influence on me,” Tannhauser said.

All three of Tannhauser’s siblings swam at the Division I level, but she said there was no particular point in her life when she decided to swim in college. She was simply going with the flow.

“To me, it was just so normal to swim and so normal to spend hours in the pool and practice every day,” she said. 

Tannhauser received scholarship offers from several schools in the SEC, including Clemson, Alabama and South Carolina. She committed to South Carolina for a year, but decided shortly afterward to transfer to WSU.

She said it was difficult to adjust to a new style of coaching and practice.

“I definitely had a difficult sophomore year with swimming,” she said.

That year happened to be Jager’s first year as head coach at WSU.

Tannhauser said she loved South Carolina but wanted to be closer to home. She attributes her competitive nature to her siblings, whom she often watched compete as a child. At the age of 10, she was perhaps a little too competitive, she said.

“I was at a lap swim one time and I decided to do a 50, so down and back underwater, holding my breath, and next thing you know it, I pushed myself too hard and I almost drowned,” she said.

When she’s not in the pool, Tannhauser likes to paint, draw and take pictures. Swimming, however, is No. 1 on her list.