Lehigh men’s swimmer Aaron Williams transitions to rising collegiate star

In March of his senior year of high school, Lehigh men’s swim and dive freshman Aaron Williams became the first state swimming champion in New Jersey’s Williamstown High School history. 

Williams captured the 50-yard freestyle sprint in 20.61 seconds at the NJSIAA Meet of Champions.

Williams and his twin brother, Reuben, both lifelong swimmers, graduated from Williamstown holding school records in every event except the 500 freestyle.

Lehigh coach Rob Herb attributed Williams’ collegiate success to his ability to be a team player. Herb said the thing that impresses him the most about Williams is how much of a team-first mentality he has, despite his competition-driven nature.

Williams said his biggest strength is sprinting, and his best events are 50 free and 100 fly.

“Growing up in the water, sprinting was always something I was good at and I worked on,” Williams said. “When you’re swimming you always want to be the fastest and it’s all about who can get to the wall the fastest.”

Williams’ high school success has carried over to the collegiate level. At the Mountain Hawks’ most recent meet against Loyola, Williams won the 100-yard butterfly (50.83), was on the winning 200-yard freestyle relay, came in second place in the 200-yard medley relay and finished third in the 50-yard freestyle (21.95).

Even though Williams has enjoyed success in his early Lehigh career, he said it did take some time for him to adjust. He said collegiate athletics are significantly different from high school in that they require much more time.

“In the beginning, I struggled a little bit with it because of all the practices and how much time I was spending on swimming,” Williams said.

Williams said he and his fellow underclassmen have been able to make an immediate impact because of the leadership of the upperclassmen. He said junior captains Connor Drucis and Miles Cox committed to leading by example and doing everything they can to help the freshmen with their transition to college.

“We sat down over the summer and decided that we wanted to focus on the little things,” Drucis said. “When the freshmen got to campus, we emphasized that every single day, every single lap, we give it our all and stress the little things. The freshmen as a whole have been such quick learners and they have been some of the biggest point getters on the team.”

Herb said, in the past, there were issues among the freshmen on the team due to a lack of core leadership. This year, he said, the team has a leadership group that understands that the program’s success hinges not only on the more experienced returning swimmers, but the freshmen, as well. 

Williams said the upperclassmen pay attention to answering any questions the freshmen may have, and they are there for the younger swimmers who may need guidance balancing athletics and academics. He said these are the main reasons why upperclassmen have been such an integral part of the team’s success.

Despite seeing some losses in the beginning of the season, Herb said he feels the team is on the brink of a breakthrough. 

“We’ve lost some meets, but we’ve lost them in a fashion where the other team might get their hand on the wall first and we’re literally a tenth of a second behind,” Herb said. “Which is a loss, but there’s a lot of hope in the fact that we are extremely competitive. Once we get through the first wave of training, I think we’re going to see the tide turn.”

The team will look to win its biggest meet of the year when they face Lafayette on Nov. 18 in the Rivalry meet.