When Bev Ball’s friends join the 85-year-old swim coach at a restaurant in Abilene, Texas, they know what to expect: She will run into someone she’s gotten to know – or coached – over six decades spent by the local pools.

The wedding rehearsal was supposed to start at 6:30 p.m. one Friday in September. But the minutes ticked toward the bottom of the hour, then away from it again. Bridesmaids checked the time on their phones. Groomsmen glanced at their watches. Where, they all wondered, was the officiant?

Mike Kroll started Manchester University’s swimming and diving program a year ago after a decade of finding success as a coach and swimmer. With spastic cerebral palsy, Kroll’s goal as a swimmer wasn’t to win a race but to make himself better and meet his personal goals every day.

The Arizona swimmer reflects on the important lessons she learned in her time as a college athlete.

Clarion University of Pennsylvania’s Kristin Day maintained a perfect grade-point average in chemistry and competed for Division II diving national championships. Alone, either of those accomplishments would be enough to satiate most people’s ambitions. Not Day.

The Swarthmore swimmer learned she was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship shortly before graduating in May with degrees in chemistry and computer science. So, in August, she used the scholarship to move to India where she will spend nine months researching tuberculosis, hoping to find a simple, fast and non-invasive way to diagnose this global disease.