Delaney Wesolek: Hope College Athletics Podcast

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Delaney Wesolek’s daily calendar fills up quickly as a Hope College swimmer and nursing student. Time is precious as a student-athlete with early-morning practices, classes or clinicals during the day, afternoon practices, and evening homework or relaxation.

Maximizing all of the opportunities, Wesolek handles daily tasks at an extremely high level. In April, the senior from Bay City, Michigan (John Glenn HS) was named the 2023 Hope College Be Strong. Be True. Female Athlete of the Year. One month earlier, Wesolek competed on relays at the NCAA Division III Championships and helped the Flying Dutch finish 10th in the nation.

Wesolek recently joined the Hope College Athletics Orange and Blue Podcast, along with head swimming and diving coach Jake Taber, to talk about what it is like to be a Division III student-athlete at Hope.

In addition to swimming and studying, Wesolek has been involved with Dance Marathon at Hope, an annual fundraiser for the Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital in Grand Rapids, and helped start Team 43, a support group for Hope student-athletes that focuses on mental health.

“Old school” time management

How does Wesolek keep on top of everything? 

“For me, I would say I’m kind of old school in how I do my time management. My paper planner is my best friend, and I rely on it so much,” Wesolek said. “It definitely keeps me in line. I hold myself accountable by making my schedule. 

“I’m a big list person as well. That’s something that (Coach) Taber can even talk about whenever we have little meetings, I come in, I have my list and he’s like, ‘All right, what’s on the list? Let’s just get to it.’ That’s just kind of how I roll because I love crossing things off and just working off my list and using my planner and that’s something that I did do in high school,” Wesolek said. “I would say when I got to the college level, it was definitely an adjustment itself with a different class schedule. That’s different than what high school was but also just unique training schedules as well. That was definitely new and I had to learn how to navigate my time and how I manage that.”

Taber was thrilled to see Wesolek chosen as one of two Be Strong. Be True. Athletes of the Year. Football’s Dan Romano was the male recipient.

“For me, it’s funny to hear Delaney say how shocked she was. I wasn’t,” Taber said. “The experience that, we and our coaching staff have had working with her every day for the last three years is that she embodies what it means a Christian student-athlete. She’s involved in her community. She continues to excel at a very high level. 

“She gets it done in the pool, on campus, in the community, and she isn’t just involved in these things. I mean she’s got leadership roles and she has a tremendously high impact in everything that she’s involved with. When you look at what we’re about, from a student-athlete standpoint here at Hope College, I can’t think of a better representative than Delaney.”

Read a written transcript of the interview.