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St. Joseph, Minn. – It had been quite the start for Saint Benedcit first-year swimmer Stephanie Bierman. The Apple Valley, Minn. native has come on as a dominant force for the Blazers, a team that has showed some extreme talent in the early goings. This Blazer, however, may be having the best individual start of all. She has been racking up first place finishes in just about every race she has been in, even nearing some Blazer records along the way.

As a high school athlete, Bierman saw incredible success. She was a state participant for three years, including her sophomore year where she raced in all four of her events at the state meet level. Due to her success, she received All-Conference honors each of those three years.

Most people expected some growing pains for the 5-foot-11 rookie, because it was her first year at this level, but she quickly has proved any doubters wrong. In the first individual event of her career at the Hamline Invite, Bierman posted a time of 24.92 in the 50 free, giving her the first place finish. For most people that would be enough, but not for Bierman. She came back six events later in the 100 free and touched the wall first with a time of 55.38, a time over two seconds better than the runner-up.

Believe it or not, she's hardly surprised at what she's doing. “Yeah, it's a little surprising but I knew going in that I'm a hard worker and I was willing to work for good times.”

She credits head coach Jordan Wolfrum and the rest of the Blazer squad for pushing her throughout each and every practice, making her get better every day. She also especially is thankful to be on the junior-heavy 200 medley relay team, in which she anchors.  “They've experienced a lot and try to help me when I'm struggling or need to work on something.”

That kind of team atmosphere is actually what she enjoys most about being a member of the Saint Benedict swimming and diving team. “The team aspect is my favorite part because of the feeling I get when I hear everyone cheer for me on the side. It just pushes me to go that much faster.”

During the past weekend (Nov. 30 and Dec. 1) Bierman and the Blazers went to Minneapolis to participate in the Jean Freeman Invite, hosted by the University of Minnesota. The team as a unit swam very well but Bierman, who also celebrated her birthday during the meet, had a great showing. She took fourth out of 80 swimmers from many different schools in the 50 free and did so with a final time of 24.65. For those keeping track, that is just 0.66 seconds slower than the Blazer record of 23.98 set by Kristen Beste last year.

When asked about her individual goals for this season Bierman let out a little grin and simply looked out at the pool, then to the walls and nodded to one spot on the wall. “I want that record,” she said. In her opinion, she needs to work on her turnovers the most and just keep pushing during practice.

“She needs to realize her potential,” coach Wolfrum said. “She has the potential to break that record but the women that put those records up on that wall wouldn't give them up easy.”

With at least eight more meets left, Bierman has a lot of time left to continue to get better this season and hopefully break the record. It won't be easy, but it's safe to say that Stephanie Bierman is up for the challenge.

On Dec. 7 at 6 p.m., the Blazers' host St. Cloud State in dual meet action, in their final home meet before the holiday break.