Peter Gollands may be better known for his performance in the swimming pool, but he does not want people to forget that he has outside interests as well.

Gollands is two things: artistic and ferocious. He’s artistic out of the pool, ferocious is in it.

Gollands, a sophomore on the men’s swimming and diving team, attributes his artistic characteristics to his personality. Outside of the pool, Gollands plays the drums in a band and is heavily interested in art.

‘Art is something I’ve been doing as long as I’ve been swimming,’ Gollands said. ‘It’s as big a part of my identity as swimming is.’

The other adjective, ferocious, is what Gollands is known for. Some of his teammates even refer to him as ‘a beast.’ Gollands does not use it to describe himself in the normal sense, though. He describes his ferociousness as a tactic used to motivate him and others during practice and meets.

‘In practice it’s really important to get in each others’ face and kind of motivate each other to do the best you can,’ Gollands said. ‘It’s probably ferocious not in a bad way, but in a good way in that you’re trying to encourage each other and really yourself because swimming is both an individual and a team sport.’

Fellow teammates feel it is a just word to describe him, too.

‘(It suits him) in many ways,’ sophomore teammate Colin Murphy said. ‘He’s very emotional and he really gets into everything.’

His teammates and coaches also recognize the lighter side of Gollands as one of his key attributes. SU head coach Lou Walker noticed Gollands’ camaraderie with the team and his humor.

‘(He’s) somebody who has a good sense of confidence, good camaraderie with the guys, and you see that,’ Walker said. ‘I think he’s an easygoing kid, easy to get along with, has a good sense of humor. I see that in how the guys relate to him.’

Murphy, one of Gollands’ best friends, agreed with Walker.

‘I would probably say his sense of humor and light-heartedness is his best feature,’ Murphy said. ‘He doesn’t take anything too seriously, but he still focuses and doesn’t take anything too lightly either. He’s lighthearted and humorous. He’s a great guy.’

No matter if the artistic, ferocious or humorous Gollands shows up at the pool, one thing is for certain: he performs in the water.

This season, Gollands started the season with a second-place finish in the 200-meter butterfly in the dual meet versus Colgate. At the Red Fox Invitational at Marist, Gollands continued his success, finishing third in the 200 fly, fourth in the 100 butterfly and fifth in the 200 individual medley.

Walker credits Gollands as being a significant contributor last year and is looking for him to work on this success this year and continue to be important to the team.

But Gollands feels he still has some room to improve. He wants to erase significant time off his 100 and 200 butterfly and 100 individual medley times. Walker hopes to see Gollands progress and possibly be a Big East finalist.

‘What I like is I see him growing as he goes,’ Walker said. ‘He’s a sophomore. As a freshman some of the things he needed to improve such as mechanically and training wise, I’m really starting to see those thing come into play as we’re getting into his sophomore year.’

Published on November 5, 2006 at 12:00 pm