Elms College senior Keegan Goan entered the water for the 100-meter Individual Medley at Feb. 14’s New England Intercollegiate Swimming and Diving Association championships seeded third. He entered determined, and riding a four-year wave of smashed records. He also entered dangerously ill, gutted by some kind of bug. He finished, yes, but several seconds behind the pack, dehydrated and disoriented.

“It took two or three of my teammates to pull me out of the water,” he says. “[And then I] passed out. Coach still talks to me about why I swam; I didn’t need to swim.” Keegan was rushed by ambulance (as if there’s any other way to travel by ambulance), where doctors stuck him with IVs and filled him full-up with anti-nausea meds.

He doesn’t linger on his own troubles, though, when asked about that evening. Instead, he prefers to talk about how his team continued to perform in his absence.

“I was supposed to swim the relay right after that. The relay came together – one of the other kids took my place, and they actually broke the school record. They got third. They said it was for me.”

Goan is a 2010 Westbrook High School grad. He took up swimming in junior high – but only because he needed a winter sport, something to fill the time between soccer and baseball seasons. Turned out, he’s very at home in the water.

“I thought it might be fun,” he says. “I hopped in, and it came very naturally.”

Swimming for the Blue Blazes, he accrued a long list of accolades, among them multiple school relay records (alongside his brother, Kyle, and two other buddies) and a state title in the 100-meter fly as a senior.

He moved on to college and immediately faced the challenges every freshman faces, including learning self-discipline. “Swimming helped. Swimming kept me in line all the way through high school and through college.”

He faced some less-common challenges, too: Not every college student contracts mono, after all, and even fewer manage to pick up strep at the same time. The combo laid Goan up for weeks. “It was a rough year for me…I wasn’t the same.”

“Sophomore year was one of my better years,” Goan says, though he didn’t manage to stay entirely healthy for those nine months either. This time, it was kidney stones that took him down for a long stretch of weeks.

“But I ended up coming out on top. I actually got second place in the 50 fly and the 100 yard at [our conference championships].”

Finally, in his junior year, Keegan could really show his stuff – not just as a swimmer, but also as a team leader. “We had a couple new freshmen come in who really helped our team, and we kind of took the conference by storm.” The team set an all-time high for points scored at a championship meet and broke numerous school records.

Keegan’s father, Greg Goan, happily rattles off his son’s other accomplishments: a 32-1 record in the 50 fly during regular-season dual meets, 29 broken school or pool records at Elms, where he still holds 13 school records – including one of 23.7 seconds in the 50 fly – and a handful of records at other institutions as well.

In addition, Keegan won 10 GNAC (Great Northeast Atlantic Conference) titles, was named to the All-GNAC team three of his four years, the All-New England Team three years, and the Academic All-American Team for all four years.

Of that last honor, and his focus on his schoolwork (he has a 3.52 GPA), Goan says, “I was told by my parents at a very young age that academics will get you wherever you want to go; never swimming.” He mentions that his coach, Bill Tyler, is also academically minded.

This year, his senior year, proved another happy stretch – well, except for the hospitalization incident. “This year was the way to cap it off,” Goan says. “Words cannot explain.” The Elms team qualified for ECACs – that’s the Eastern College Athletic Conference, a still-larger stage than either the NEISDA or the GNAC – held in Annapolis, Md.

“ECACs are the next level; one step below NCAAs,” Keegan explains. There, he swam the 100 fly, and with three teammates cut through the 200 medley relay. Though Goan and his friends bounced out in the prelims, he calls the opportunity to compete alongside DI and II athletes, as well as the exposure to a wider world, “amazing…a once-in-a-lifetime [experience].”

Goan (currently in good health) graduates in May with an accounting degree. He doesn’t yet have a job lined up, and expects to return to Maine “for a few years, to get my feet back on the ground and start paying back those loans.”

Tyler hints to Keegan that he will probably end up in the Elms athletics hall of fame, a few years down the line.

“College is – I’ve heard horror stories, and I’ve heard good things, too. But I wouldn’t change any of the last four years at all,” he said.

Elms College swimmers, including Keegan Goan (third from the right, hood up), pose on their trip to Annapolis, Md., for the 2014 Eastern College Athletic Conference championships.Keegan Goan, second from the right, and teammates happily line up for a shot on the pool deck.Goan displays a chestful of medals.