Although senior Tom Molzahn may be a comedian and have his own stand-up routine outside of the pool, he's all business when he gets in the water.
"He has a tendency to be loud," Wisconsin head coach Eric Hansen said. "But, he's well-received. He's a strong leader and brings humor to [the team]. He always has a funny take on interesting situations."
This year, Molzahn and the Badgers opened the season against in-state rival UW-Green Bay, with Wisconsin winning 190-106. In the meet, Molzahn had a first-place finish in the 100-yard freestyle, swimming a 46.67. He also finished first in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:41.90.
Although Molzahn has seen some early season success, he acknowledges that he has some aspects of his stroke that he needs to work on.
"I need to work on a couple technical things on my stroke," Molzahn said. "I need to work on my rotation and getting though the water efficiently."
Although Molzahn admits that he needs improvement, Hansen agrees that his strong work ethic will help him get to where he needs to be.
"Tom has been an extremely hard worker and dedicated, not only with what goes on in the pool, but what goes on before and after," Hansen said.
Molzahn has a big impact on what goes on outside of the pool. Since he is the oldest member of the team, he plays a major leadership role. Teammates say that Molzahn has been one of the team's best leaders and always works hard during practice.
"He usually leads though example," freshman Steven Wiesner said. "He's always motivating us in practice."
"Molzahn is a great leader by example," co-captain Tom Gregory added. "He trains his butt off and you know when he is here, he is here to work. If you're next to him, you know it's going to be a race and most likely he'll beat you. It's nice to have him here because even if you are not having a good day, you can always look over and see him going as hard as he can."
However, as Molzahn has matured and becoming more accustomed to his leadership role, he has become a more verbal leader and has put his energy into always trying to get the team going.
"He began leading by example," Hansen said. "This year he has stepped up and has become more verbal and tries to get the people around him more motivated. I think that it has really caught on with him and it's helped our freshmen, especially, in our workouts."
Since the team is so young, the freshmen and underclassmen have to adapt to the flat learning curve of intercollegiate sports. This takes some guidance, which is looked for in the leadership of the team.
"One of the things that we stress is that we need the freshmen to come in and be a part of us right away," Hansen said. "We don't have time to single out the freshmen and treat them like freshmen. We need them to be upperclassmen as quickly as we can. I think Tom has led our upperclassmen with that thought and the freshmen are coming around quite quickly."
Molzahn has helped the freshmen adapt while being aided by his fellow upperclassmen, such as Gregory.
"We try to give them some experience," Gregory said. "We have been through the program a few years. A lot of it was reassuring they would adapt [to the work load] and it would get better. [We] tell them to wait a few weeks or to wait a month and they would stop being sore for three weeks straight."
Along with leading the team, Molzahn has his own goals. Last year, he placed 8th at the Big Ten Championships in the 200 yard freestyle, going 1:37.50 and 5th in the 500-yard freestyle, swimming a 4:22.71. This year, he hopes to take it to the next level, the NCAA Championships.
"My goals for this season are to get NCAA's," Molzahn said. "I think that this is the focus not only for myself, but for the team. I just missed out on it last year by one or two spots in the 200 [freestyle] and our relays just missed out on it. I think that we were so close last year and seeing as we lost only one senior, there is no doubt in my mind that we will do it this year."
Other than swimming, Molzahn has other goals outside the pool. He does not plan on continuing swimming, but rather entering the business world.
"I'm kind of ready to take the next step in my life," Molzahn said. "In terms of taking what I learned from swimming, in terms of work ethic, details, and coachability. I want to use these skills to move on with my life, never forgetting my roots in swimming."