Junior Justice Beard chasing first nationwide title at NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships

Junior Justice Beard, already a four-time first-team All-American, will attempt to win her first nationwide title when she competes within the 2026 NCAA Division II Swimming and Diving Championships starting Tuesday in Evansville, Indiana. (Photo by Derik Holtmann)

It has felt a bit of lonelier within the pool the previous few weeks when University of Missouri–St. Louis junior Justice Beard goes by means of her coaching on the Mark Twain Athletic Center.

She’s reached the purpose within the season the place just one meet stays: the NCAA Division II Swimming and Diving Championships, which start Tuesday on the Deaconess Aquatic Center in Evansville, Indiana. Beard is one of six UMSL swimmers who’ve qualified for the national meet, and he or she’s the one distance specialist, so she hasn’t had a lot firm for many of her exercises.

“It’s kind of hard,” Beard mentioned, “because you’ve got to find the balance between socializing with the other people, socializing with the coaches, and then pushing yourself – by yourself – in a practice that you’re the only one swimming.”

UMSL swimmer Justice Beard celebrates after her first-place end within the 200-yard freestyle race on the 2026 GLVC Swimming and Diving Championships. Beard gained 4 particular person occasions and was named the GLVC Swimmer of the Year. (Photo by Jared McFarlane)

It’s not fully new to Beard. She’s educated for and competed in 10-kilometer open water races that lasted greater than two hours, leaving her loads of time swimming in solitude. She’s additionally had the expertise of prepping for nationals every of the previous two years and is already embellished 4 occasions as a first-team All-American, having completed seventh in the 1,650-yard freestyle as a freshman and coming in second, fourth and fifth in the 1,650-, 1,000- and 500-yard freestyle races last March.

Beard, the Great Lakes Valley Conference Swimmer of the Year, is now on a singular quest to complete first at this yr’s NCAA Championships. She enters the meet with the quickest occasions within the nation this season within the 500-, 1,000- and 1,650-yard freestyle occasions and an opportunity to turn into the primary Tritons swimmer – and solely the third UMSL group or particular person in any sport – to win a nationwide championship.

“There’s a lot of pressure,” mentioned Beard, who will even be racing within the 200-yard freestyle. “Not like my team’s putting pressure on me, but I put a lot of pressure on myself. I’ve never been this highly ranked in so many events going in. That’s not something I ever expected.”

Diving in

Truth be instructed, Beard – a biology major and member of the Pierre Laclede Honors College who has desires of turning into a veterinarian and sooner or later working in animal rescue – wasn’t certain precisely how good she was as a swimmer when she arrived at UMSL in 2023.

It’s not that she was new to the pool. In truth, she’s been swimming since she was 5 years previous rising up simply exterior Paducah, Kentucky.

“I was originally in gymnastics, but I couldn’t wait in lines,” Beard mentioned. “They were like, ‘Maybe she should come back when she’s older.’ I never went back. I got into swimming, and you don’t have to wait in lines in swimming. You just swim nonstop. It let me get my energy out. I was a very hyperactive little kid.”

Justice Beard has been swimming since she was 5 years previous. (Photo courtesy of UMSL Athletics)

Once Beard began swimming, she by no means actually stopped, practising yr spherical all through childhood and adolescence and all the way in which to commencement from McCracken County High School.

Even when the COVID-19 outbreak led to her pool being closed in 2020, she and some of her teammates would drive greater than an hour to Kentucky Lake and don wetsuits so they may get within the water.

But western Kentucky isn’t a hotbed of aggressive swimming. Beard had all the time educated and competed as a part of a small membership, and although she often gained races and swam quicker and longer than lots of her friends, she and her mother and father have been not sure how that may translate to the way more aggressive atmosphere of school swimming.

UMSL Coach Tony Hernandez noticed the potential in Beard and considered one of two NCAA Division II coaches to supply her a scholarship, although she had a number of different provides from NAIA packages.

“I could see how talented she was and how she could race and compete, and I knew she’d have some upside just from not having big, structured swimming before coming to college,” Hernandez mentioned. “She was largely an open water swimmer and came from a very small club team, so we were just hoping we could make her faster. We thought she could be someone that would be able to make an impact for the team.”

That didn’t imply Hernandez was relying on the just about instantaneous success that Beard loved throughout her first season. She rapidly started rewriting UMSL’s report books whereas incomes GLVC Freshman of the Year honors, claiming the school’s first-ever conference championships in women’s swimming and swimming to that seventh-place end on the NCAA Championships.

Under the floor

Beard swam a lot of her freshman season with a secret. She’d been coping with a persistent sickness that made it troublesome to get correct diet and construct muscle mass. It generally left her feeling fatigued or coping with joint or belly ache, amongst different signs.

“I went all the freshman year without seeing a doctor for it because I had noticed these problems, but I was doing really good in the pool,” she mentioned. “I think this sounds crazy, but I went immediately to the worst-case scenario. I was like, ‘Oh, I have cancer.’ I was like, ‘There’s something wrong with me. I have cancer, and I’m never going to swim again, so I might as well make this season worth it.’”

It wasn’t till the next summer season that she lastly labored up the braveness to hunt medical assist and get a analysis for her situation. That’s when she realized it was not most cancers however reasonably ulcerative colitis, which could possibly be managed with medicine and changes to her food regimen.

She was lucky to discover a specialist in St. Louis at Washington University’s Inflammatory Bowel Disease Center to supervise her remedy.

Justice Beard lifts her hand in celebration after touching the wall first in a conference-record time of 4:50.42 to win the ladies’s 500-yard race on the 2025 GLVC Swimming and Diving Championships. (Photo courtesy of UMSL Athletics)

“It was taking away from a lot of her recovery and her strength,” Hernandez mentioned of Beard’s sickness. “Quite merely, all the pieces she was consuming wasn’t refueling her and generally was truly doing the alternative – breaking down her muscle tissues and breaking down her joints and giving her further ache.

“When she started to get treatment for that and get that in order, her perspective was like, ‘All right, I’m just not suffering anymore. It may not be getting all the full strength of my food, but at least I’m not being broken down from what I’m eating.’ So, that was a big relief for her. She’s had a lot more focus on her diet, and it’s definitely added to her discipline.”

Beard nonetheless needed to endure some psychological and emotional turmoil all through the early and center a part of her sophomore season as she struggled to hit the occasions she had been concentrating on. She mentioned there have been moments when she doubted she might regain the shape from her freshman yr.

It was not till the latter a part of the season that Beard lastly felt like she had a deal with on her sickness, however it occurred in time to gasoline one other sturdy end. At the NCAA Championships, after putting fourth within the 1,000- and fifth within the 500-yard freestyle, she saved her finest efficiency for the 1,650-yard race on the ultimate day.

Hernandez can clearly recall the way it transpired.

“She was in third the whole race and down by like a body length in the last 75 or 100 yards of the mile,” he mentioned. “But she completely ran down the girl in second place and finished second herself.”

It was the highest-ever end by an UMSL girls’s swimmer, and he or she set a college report with a time of 16 minutes, 24.86 seconds, breaking her personal mark of 16:34.77.

“She went the fastest split to close her mile of all the girls at the meet and was like third or fourth fastest of even the guys, too,” Hernandez mentioned. “So, we knew the power that she had started to develop and really started to show at that point. We’ve kind of ridden with that all this year.”

Racing towards historical past

Beard’s sickness has been in remission since final summer season, leaving little to carry her again throughout her junior season.

Racing on the Phoenix Fall Classic, hosted by the University of Chicago final November, Beard clocked a pool-record time of 16:29.98 in the 1,650-yard freestyle, ending solely about 5 seconds slower than what she did at nationals final season.

She’s routinely gained 500- and 1,000-yard races in twin meets all through the winter and even took first in a 200-yard particular person medley race in opposition to Missouri S&T in December and a 200-yard butterfly in opposition to Henderson State in early January.

Teammates collect to rejoice with Justice Beard after she positioned second within the 1,650-yard freestyle race on the 2025 NCAA Division II Swimming and Diving Championships. (Photo courtesy of UMSL Athletics)

If there was any doubt about her type, that ended eventually month’s GLVC Swimming and Diving Championships when Beard not solely gained the 500-, 1,000- and 1,650-yard races – posting nation-leading occasions within the first two occasions – however she additionally stunned herself by finishing first in the 200-yard freestyle.

“There’s a couple of photos after I’d won the 200 freestyle at conference – which was something I was not supposed to win – and I’m just sitting there crying,” she mentioned. “I’m hugging everyone. I’m just an emotional mess.”

She imagines she’ll be much more emotional if she will flip in a successful time or two – or three or 4 – this week on the NCAA Championships.

Her preparation has gone effectively and has tapered down heading into the meet.

“We’re confident what she can do between the flags, just the swimming portion,” Hernandez mentioned. “Maximizing that efficiency in and out of the walls is really important.”

It will even be vital to ensure she retains her physique recent competing in 4 particular person occasions plus some relays over 5 days of competitors. But she feels good about her routine.

“Obviously, I’m not going to go out and jog in between sessions to clear my mind,” she mentioned. “I’m probably going to throw on the Animal Planet TV channel while I’m sitting in my bed and eat a good meal. I don’t eat things too heavy, though.”

As for any strain, Hernandez is assured Beard is dealing with it appropriately.

“She’s excited for it,” he mentioned. “She’s up for the challenge. You can feel a little bit of an edge about her. That’s a good edge about her. She’s got the right level of anxiousness. She’s prepared, so I’m excited. We’re ready for next week to come. Now it’s just being patient, letting the body recover, keeping some of the race details sharp.”