Panevezys, Lithuania is a long way from Dallas. However the distance did not stop junior Mindaugas Sadauskas from coming all the way to Southern Methodist University to join SMU’s swimming team. Sadauskas took the team to 32nd place at the NCAA tournament last year.

For Sadauskas, swimming has been practically a lifelong passion. Although he notes that swimming is not very popular back home, Sadauskas got into swimming at an early age.

“I became interested in swimming when I was in second grade,” Sadauskas said. “I wasn’t expecting to start my swimming career at that time, but my coach from back home told me I could be a good swimmer, and I believed her.”

His decision to pursue swimming brought him to the United States, which he describes as his biggest dream when he was a kid. The SMU swim team is multi-cultured with swimmers from Canada, Mexico, Australia, Thailand, Slovenia, Sweden, South Africa and Denmark in addition to players from across the United States.

“I decided to come here because SMU had a couple guys from Europe and I knew that it would work for me. The SMU coaches were very nice to me. They helped me with all the paperwork and communications.”

Sadauskas was especially successful in the Conference USA championships last year, where he took second in the 50-yard freestyle, first in the 100-yard backstroke, and helped the 400-yard freestyle and the 400-yard medley relay teams take first place. But despite these performances, Sadauskas believes there is room for improvement.

“I think we could do better,” Sadauskas said. “I am sure we will be able to compete against the fastest college swimmers and rank higher at the end of the year.”

They have an intrasquad meet Wednesday at 7:00 p.m., but their first competition will be at the Southwest College Invite Oct. 28 and Oct. 29 in Mansfield, Texas.