What has being on the U.S. national team meant to you?<\/strong> My dad was an Olympian in \u201988, \u201992, and that was my first inspiration. From a very young age, this was my goal. Olympic team gold medal, world record.\u2009 . . . Making [USA Swimming\u2019s] world championship team in the 100 back was such a step in the right direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Considering COVID-19, NIL and conference realignment, what will you take from competing at such a unique point in the NCAA\u2019s history?<\/strong> COVID alone just made so many changes. I guess I don\u2019t know what a normal college experience is really. But I think it was a special time to be in college because it forced everyone to grow up in a way that we wouldn\u2019t have otherwise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What have you missed about Montana?<\/strong> I\u2019m such a mountain girl. I love the creeks and rivers and lakes. <\/p>\n","protected":false,"raw":"\n\n\n\n\n Katharine Berkoff \u201923 has five ACC gold medals and is a four-time national champion, taking back-to-back titles in the 100-meter backstroke in 2021 and 2022. The Missoula, Mont., native has also been named an All-American 25 times and is a member of the U.S. national team with a chance to make the Olympics in 2024. Berkoff is pursuing a graduate degree in fisheries, wildlife and conservation biology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What goals have you set for your fifth year?<\/strong> Last year, I didn\u2019t really have the season I wanted. I was just sick all winter. And I was still training but very exhausted. I put a lot of pressure on myself from winning the 100 back two years in a row. I just kind of crumbled under the pressure . . . Now that I didn\u2019t win last year, there\u2019s a lot less pressure on me. My goal is to win again. That would be such an awesome way to end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What has being on the U.S. national team meant to you?<\/strong> My dad was an Olympian in \u201988, \u201992, and that was my first inspiration. From a very young age, this was my goal. Olympic team gold medal, world record.\u2009 . . . Making [USA Swimming\u2019s] world championship team in the 100 back was such a step in the right direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Considering COVID-19, NIL and conference realignment, what will you take from competing at such a unique point in the NCAA\u2019s history?<\/strong> COVID alone just made so many changes. I guess I don\u2019t know what a normal college experience is really. But I think it was a special time to be in college because it forced everyone to grow up in a way that we wouldn\u2019t have otherwise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What have you missed about Montana?<\/strong> I\u2019m such a mountain girl. I love the creeks and rivers and lakes. <\/p>\n"},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Katharine Berkoff \u201923 returns for a fifth year and some unfinished business in the water.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":4492,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"views\/single-immersive.blade.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"source":"","ncst_custom_author":"","ncst_show_custom_author":false,"ncst_dynamicHeaderBlockName":"ncst\/default-immersive-post-header","ncst_dynamicHeaderData":"{\"backgroundColor\":\"indigo_400\",\"displayCategoryID\":5,\"showAuthor\":true,\"showDate\":true,\"showFeaturedVideo\":false,\"subtitle\":\"Katharine Berkoff \u201923 returns for a fifth year and some unfinished business in the water.\"}","ncst_content_audit_freq":"","ncst_content_audit_date":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[109,275,276,637,1123,1214],"_ncst_magazine_issue":[],"displayCategory":{"term_id":5,"name":"Best Bets","slug":"best-bets","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":5,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":39,"filter":"raw"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4841"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4841"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4841\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5086,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4841\/revisions\/5086"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4841"},{"taxonomy":"_ncst_magazine_issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_ncst_magazine_issue?post=4841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Berkoff_Head.jpg\")