Helwig ’07 follows her mother’s footsteps

Helwig ‘07 follows her mother’s footsteps

Liz Helwig ‘07 followed in the footsteps of her mother, Suzanne Boutillier Helwig ‘74, uncle, and cousin in attending Lafayette. While Helwig knew she wanted to swim at the Division I level, it was never a given that she would be a Leopard. “When I was first looking at schools I was stuck on going south,” says Helwig. “The biggest factor in why I chose Lafayette is Coach Dailey. Coach Dailey was one of the few coaches that understood the demand of academics and athletics. He cares about each one of his swimmers as a person and was willing to work with me on both the athletic and academic demands.” “Liz is the fastest woman Lafayette has ever had on the team,” says head swimming coach Jim Dailey. “She is already number one in our dual-meet season top-five in seven events.” “My mom had little influence on my decision to attend Lafayette,” Helwig says. “She encouraged me to look at a variety of schools and meet with different coaches to find a school that fit me best. However, once my decision was made to attend Lafayette, it was exciting to go to the school which she once attended.” While mother and daughter will both own a degree from Lafayette, their alma mater will be the same in name only. “When I came in there were only approximately 125 girls. We were the first class in which they admitted females,” Suzanne Helwig says. “There were a few more girls each year, but by the time I graduated there were still only 400 or 500 girls, so it was still a predominantly male school. It was a coed institution, but it felt like an all-male school that just a few females attended.” Helwig has collected at least two first-place finishes in each of Lafayette’s first four outings and set a new school record in the 200 IM, touching the wall in 2:09.91 in a dual meet at Lehigh Nov. 21. Her time shattered the old record by over a second. —By Scott Rex, Athletic Communications Graduate Intern