With the Big Ten swimming championship approaching rapidly, you would think that senior swimmer Bethany Pendleton is worried about her training or even her upcoming opponents. But none of those things are topping her list of concerns. There is only one concern on her mind at all times: “Don’t fall.”

“I broke my hand when we were in Hawaii for Christmas training. I was in a cast for two weeks and another kind of cast for two more weeks,” Pendleton said. “So, when I’m walking through the snow, the only thing going through my head ever is ‘Don’t fall, don’t fall.’ I’m about as good on land as normal people are in the water.”

But in the water is where Pendleton has created a name for herself, not on the slippery streets of Madison. Coming into her senior year, the Hood River, Ore. native already amassed an impressive number of honors. She entered the season as the school-record holder in the 400-yard individual medley, and was a member of the Big Ten record-holding 800-yard freestyle relay team. Pendleton also joined the long list of Badgers who are Olympic hopefuls when she qualified for the Olympic trials in the 200-yard and 400-yard individual medleys.

But all these awards and accomplishments were just stage setters for Pendleton’s senior campaign. Pendleton entered the season coming off of a solid showing in last year’s NCAA championships. Where other athletes may try to increase or change their training regimen in hopes of gaining increased production, Pendleton stuck with the tried and true.

“Nationals went really well this summer, and I just took that momentum and went with it. Each month has been better and better,” Pendleton said. “I didn’t train any differently, but something changed. I don’t know what it was, I can’t exactly put into words what it was. Practices just started getting better and everything has been falling into place since.”

And it fell into place early, as Pendleton racked up two individual wins and swam a leg on a winning relay team to open the Big Ten season against Iowa. She won the 200-yard individual medley in a time of 2:05.24, the 100-yard freestyle in 51.91, and earned a victory in the 400-yard medley relay with teammates Amalia Sarnecki, Sarah Hernandez and Susan Johnson, with a time of 3:48.66.

Two weeks later, she earned Big Ten swimmer of the week honors for her accomplishments against the Indiana Hoosiers. In the meet, she racked up a then-pool-record time of 4:18.31 in the 400-yard individual medley, participated in the 400-yard medley relay that earned a pool-record time of 3:45.71, and swam a leg on the winning 400-yard freestyle relay team.

However, Pendleton was just warming up. Despite recovering from a broken hand, she swam with immense determination in a quadrangular meet against Illinois, Minnesota and Purdue. She tallied record-breaking wins in the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 2:02.66, the 400-yard individual medley with a time of 4:17.91 and participated on the winning 800-yard freestyle relay team that accomplished a time of 7:26.78.

All three times set new pool standards at the UW Natatorium. Pendleton also won the 200-yard freestyle and participated on the winning 400-yard freestyle relay team.

Her highlight-reel day culminated in a Big Ten swimmer of the week award, her second of the year, as well as national swimmer of the week honors from collegeswimming.com.

“It’s great. I’ve never received the national award before. I received the Big Ten award, so that one was just nice to get it again,” Pendleton said. “But the national one I was really surprised to get. It’s just nice to have that going into the Big Ten tournament next week.”

Pendleton enters this year’s Big Ten championships looking to avenge a close loss to Indiana’s Brooke Taflinger, whom Pendleton lost to in last year’s championship. In a dual meet with Indiana earlier this year, Pendleton beat Taflinger by a mere nine hundredths of a second, setting the stage for a classic duel of seniors at the championships.

“We had a huge race at the dual meet,” Pendleton said. “I’m just really excited to go back again.”

As her senior year nears its end, Pendleton’s “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” training mentality led her to some of the finest moments in her illustrious career at Madison. From the looks of her senior campaign, it seems the only thing Pendleton needs to fix is her self-admitted lack of grace out of the water. “Don’t fall, don’t fall, don’t fall … ”